The children of US Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) relentlessly tormented their mom’s personal assistant, driving him to commit suicide, an explosive lawsuit claims.
Brandon O’Brien, 35, worked for the senator’s wife, Nancy Bass Wyden — owner of Manhattan’s famed Strand Bookstore — from June 2022 to September 2024 and was “frequently tasked” with caring for the couple’s young kids, including driving them to school in NYC and watching them during trips to Disneyworld.
The disturbing behavior began in September 2022 when the couple’s then-10-year-old daughter allegedly exposed herself to O’Brien, making “sexually explicit” comments and asking about his “intimate life” during school drop-offs, O’Brien’s husband, Thomas Maltezos, alleged in court papers he filed against Bass Wyden and her company, Bass Real Estate LLC.
But the mom — whose family founded the East Village bookshop nearly a century ago — allegedly did nothing about the behavior, Maltezos contended.
Meanwhile, the Wydens’ teenage son berated O’Brien with homophobic slurs such as “f—-t” and “zest kitten,” and the boy said “his football team ‘would rape him,”‘ the suit claimed.
The boy allegedly threw things at O’Brien and the mom once “maced her son to restrain him but inadvertently maced Mr. O’Brien,” according to the Manhattan Supreme Court papers.
Some of the alleged abuse took place at Disney in front of Maltezos and his mother, the widower claimed.
Lawyers for Bass Wyden have sought to have Maltezos’ lawsuit tossed, court records show.
The lawsuit is “baseless and deeply misguided” and “riddled with false accusations,” a Bass Real Estate spokesperson said in a statement. “It appears to be a continued effort to deflect attention from O’Brien’s own serious misconduct, including a documented pattern of theft from those he once worked for.”
When O’Brien finally quit in frustration on Sept. 30, 2024, Bass Wyden, 64, filed a report with the NYPD the next day, accusing him of $650,000 in credit card and other thefts, authorities said.
Bass Wyden allegedly hired a private investigator to “probe into Mr. O’Brien’s personal life and business dealings,” according to court papers. By January, the prominent businesswoman “spread false rumors … to industry contacts and [his] professional colleagues,” leaving O’Brien distraught.
O’Brien committed suicide on May 26.
Maltezos announced his husband’s death in emotional online posts.
“It is with a shattered heart that I announce my beloved husband … died by suicide,” he wrote. “Brandon worked as an executive assistant and made every space better with his quiet grace and unwavering loyalty. I am completely heartbroken without him.”
Authorities dropped the theft case after the suicide. Lawyers for Maltezos insisted the accusation was false.
“The allegations against the senator’s wife are shocking, disturbing, and cruel — no person should ever be subject to this level of harassment, much less in the workplace,” Maltezos’ attorneys, Eric Baum and Reyna Lubin, said in a statement.
Ron Wyden, 76, is a twice-married father of five who was elected to the House in 1981.
The progressive Democrat, who has slammed President Trump over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, DOGE staffing cuts, and immigration, became a senator in 1996.
He married Bass Wyden, 12 years his junior, in 2005.
The couple has three kids in addition to Ron Wyden’s two adult children from his first marriage.
Public records show the senator and his wife have a home in Portland, but social media show Bass Wyden appears to be in the Big Apple frequently to attend to her family’s 98-year-old business.
The senator’s older son, hedge fund investor Adam Wyden, publicly broke with his tax-the-rich dad in 2021 over the Biden administration’s plan to tax capital gains.
“Why does he hate us / the American dream so much?!?!?!?! Reality is: most legislators have never built anything… so I guess it’s easier to mindlessly and haphazardly try and tear stuff down,” the younger Wyden wrote of his dad on X, in response to an exchange between the senator and Elon Musk.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
