A wrongful death suit filed by the widower of a gay man who cared for the children of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) reveals the torturous relationship he endured with the senator’s teenagers, and an alleged intimidation campaign by Wyden’s wife accusing the man of “grooming” the children.

The former personal assistant, Brandon O’Brien, later died by suicide.

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Wyden’s wife, Nancy Bass Wyden, is accused of failing to provide a safe and harassment-free working environment for the part-time au pair, whose husband filed suit in New York against Bass Wyden and her real estate company, Bass Real Estate.

Bass Wyden also owns New York City’s storied Strand Bookstore.

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O’Brien, 35, worked for Bass Wyden from June 2022 to September 2024 and was “frequently tasked” with caring for the couple’s children, including driving them to school in Manhattan and watching after them during trips to Disney World.

Ron Wyden is mentioned five times in the document but is not listed as a defendant, according to Central Oregon Daily. The lawsuit was first reported by the New York Post.

Bass Wyden is also accused of waging an intimidation campaign after O’Brien quit his job, including claims of felony theft.

In a statement to the Oregonian, Bass Wyden called the accusations against her children “deeply upsetting and out of context.” She accused O’Brien of using a “calculated effort to groom and bait the children, then twist isolated interactions in a manipulative attempt to extort me.”

O’Brien died by suicide in May “as a result of the severe emotional distress he endured during and after his employment with defendants, compounded by defendants’ continued harassment through false rumors,” the lawsuit alleges.

The suit cites findings by an administrative law judge tasked with determining the validity of an unemployment claim filed by O’Brien after he quit his job last September.

The judge wrote that while Bass Wyden couldn’t recall some of O’Brien’s allegations, “there does not seem to be much disagreement that the employer’s children, more specifically her son, harassed [O’Brien].”

“Additionally, there seems to not be a dispute that the employer found her son’s homophobic statements abhorrent and chastised him for them,” the judge wrote.

Testimony in that finding and the lawsuit reveal the Wydens’ teenage son berated O’Brien with homophobic slurs such as “fa*” and “fa**ot” and threatened O’Brien that “his football team ‘would rape him.'”

The children frequently referred to O’Brien as “zesty” and a “zest kitten,” a homophobic slur used among GenZers.

The boy threw things at O’Brien, the lawsuit alleges, and the mom once “maced her son to restrain him but inadvertently maced Mr. O’Brien.”  

Some of the alleged abuse took place at Disney World in front of O’Brien’s husband and his mother, the widower claims.

Lawyers for Bass Wyden have sought to have Maltezos’ lawsuit tossed out.

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, 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.

The suit claims Bass Wyden hired a private investigator to “probe into Mr. O’Brien’s personal life and business dealings” and “spread false rumors” to industry contacts and professional colleagues, leaving O’Brien distraught.

Maltezos announced his husband’s death in May in an emotional post online.

“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.”

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