Senator Wyden’s wife hit with staff-suicide lawsuit

By Oregon Campaign Watch,

Oregon U.S. Senator Ron Wyden’s wife, Nancy Bass Wyden,  owner of Manhattan’s famed Strand Bookstore, has been sued over a former employee who committed suicide.

The NY Post reports, “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.”

Complicating matters, is that the story mentions that the staffer was accused of stealing money from the company.

We extend the presumption of innocence until the case is resolved.