Senator Ron Wyden’s Kids Drove Man To Suicide, Had To Be Maced By Own Mother, Lawsuit Alleges

The husband of a top aide to Nancy Bass Wyden, wife of Democratic Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, has filed a lawsuit alleging the senator’s children bullied the aide into suicide.

Thomas Maltezos claims his partner, 35-year-old Brandon O’Brien, took his own life after two years of verbal abuse, slurs and harassment while working for Nancy, who is the heiress of Manhattan’s Strand Bookstore, according to the New York Post. (RELATED: 13-Year-Old Boy Shot In Head On Street Named After Another 13-Year-Old Boy Shot In Head)

The lawsuit also alleges Wyden’s daughter exposed herself to O’Brien and made “sexually explicit” remarks while pressing him about the couple’s “intimate life” during school drop-offs, the Post reported. Maltezos claims Nancy ignored the behavior from her then-10-year-old daughter.

US Senator Ron Wyden(D-OR), is sworn in by US Vice-President Joe Biden as his wife Nancy holds the Bible with their children, during a reenacted swearing-in on January 3, 2017, in the Old Senate Chamber, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC. (Photo by PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP via Getty Images)

The lawsuit further alleges that Wyden’s son repeatedly hurled homophobic slurs at O’Brien, calling him “faggot” and “zest kitten,” and once claimed his football team “would rape him,” according to the Post.

In one episode, Nancy allegedly sprayed mace at her son to stop him from throwing objects at O’Brien, but O’Brien was accidentally hit as well. After O’Brien resigned in September 2024, Nancy reported him to New York police, accusing him of stealing $650,000 through credit cards and other means, the outlet reported.

Court filings allege Nancy hired a private investigator to dig into O’Brien’s personal life and smear him with false rumors to colleagues, the Post reported. The theft investigation was dropped after O’Brien died by suicide in May. Maltezos later mourned their 14 years together in a LinkedIn post, calling O’Brien “the love of my life, my heart, and my home,” and urging others to “hold your loved ones close.”

Nancy’s attorneys dismissed the lawsuit as “baseless and deeply misguided” and “riddled with false accusations,” insisting it was an attempt to deflect from O’Brien’s “documented pattern of theft,” according to the Post.

Maltezos’ lawyers countered that “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.”

Sen. Wyden’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.