A New York judge uncovered troubling details in a labor dispute involving Oregon Senator Ron Wyden’s family. The ruling points to credible evidence that Wyden’s children harassed their mother’s personal assistant, Brandon O’Brien, with homophobic slurs before his tragic suicide.
O’Brien, 35, worked for two years as an assistant for Nancy Bass Wyden, the senator’s wife and owner of New York City’s iconic Strand Bookstore. He also handled tasks for her real estate firm, Bass Real Estate LLC. In September 2024, O’Brien quit after enduring what he described as a hostile work environment. He then applied for unemployment benefits, sparking a battle with Bass Wyden, who argued he left only because he faced firing for alleged theft.
Administrative law Judge Lorraine Ferrigno ruled in O’Brien’s favor on February 28, 2025. She found strong support for his claims of harassment from two of the Wydens’ children: an 11-year-old daughter and a 15-year-old son. The kids sent texts loaded with slurs like “zesty,” often used as a homophobic jab. Examples included “actual zest kitten” and “can you please order me food my little zest bunny.” The son went further, calling O’Brien an “f–” or “f—-t” at times, even in front of Bass Wyden. She scolded her son for the language, calling it “abhorrent,” according to the judge’s decision.
The harassment didn’t stop there. O’Brien had earlier complained to Bass Wyden about her daughter’s inappropriate sexual comments and behavior around him. Bass Wyden didn’t recall the exact issue but remembered a similar report from the child’s male au pair. The final straw came on September 30, 2024, when the son sent another homophobic text. “The credible evidence shows that O’Brien quit after that message, following earlier incidents with the children that went unaddressed,” the judge wrote.
Bass Wyden pushed back, claiming O’Brien resigned the night after she caught him stealing from the company— including about $650,000 through credit card fraud, per a police report she filed. But authorities never arrested or charged him, and the judge noted no proof that O’Brien knew about the impending firing.
Tragedy struck months later. On May 26, 2025, O’Brien took his own life. His husband, Thomas Maltezos, blames the ongoing abuse and filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Bass Real Estate. The suit echoes the judge’s findings on the hostile workplace and accuses Bass Wyden of spreading false theft rumors to block O’Brien’s unemployment benefits, leaving him deeply distressed.
Maltezos’s lawyers say the labor ruling backs their case on the harassment claims. Bass Wyden’s team has called the lawsuit “baseless” and “deeply misguided,” filing a motion to dismiss it. They describe O’Brien as a trusted assistant who abused that role through “moral corruption and manipulation.”
A request for comment from Bass Wyden’s representatives went unanswered. The case highlights serious issues of workplace harassment, homophobic bullying, and their devastating impact, drawing national attention to Senator Ron Wyden’s family and the Strand Bookstore owner.
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