On February 28 of this year, New York Administrative Law Judge Lorraine Ferrigno awarded unemployment benefits to the former personal assistant of Nancy Bass Wyden, wife of U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), holding the assistant, Brandon O’Brien, quit his job due to “homophobic text messages from the teenage son of his boss,” and explicitly overruling Bass Wyden’s contention O’Brien quit because he knew he would be fired over allegedly stealing $650,000 from Bass Wyden or her company, Bass Real Estate LLC.
Oregon Roundup was the first Oregon news outlet to report on a New York lawsuit filed by O’Brien’s widower, Thomas Maltezos, against Bass Wyden and her company, alleging Bass Wyden and Senator Wyden’s failure to stop repeated homophobic harassment of O’Brien by the Wydens’ minor son and daughter led to O’Brien taking his own life May 26 of this year. The Oregonian and The New York Post reported Tuesday on the unemployment ruling, a copy of which has now been obtained by Oregon Roundup.
Ferrigno’s ruling, which exists only because Bass Wyden appealed an initial award of unemployment benefits to O’Brien, provides important insights, some of which unreported until now, into a scandal that has gained attention nationally. The ruling was issued after Ferrigno received sworn testimony from O’Brien and Bass Wyden and represents a neutral, judicial determination of evidence relevant to Maltezos’ lawsuit and the political impact of it.
Here are the things you need to know about the unemployment decision.
Bass Wyden mostly conceded her and Senator Wyden’s children made repeated homophobic and insulting comments to O’Brien.
Ferrigno wrote in her decision, “Although the employer could not recall some of the incidents that the claimant testified to, there does not seem to be much disagreement that the employer’s children, more specifically her son, harassed the claimant.” She found both parties conceded Bass Wyden found her son’s homophobic statements “abhorrhent and chastised him for them.” Yet, the insults continued throughout O’Brien’s employment, and even after he quit September 30, 2024.
September 29, 2024, the day before O’Brien quit, the Wydens’ son, then around 15 years old, texted O’Brien “a Tik Tok clip with a very feminine looking man with the caption ‘my mother always taught me to put things back where I found them.’ Under that text was an emoji text of bloody fingers,” Ferrigno wrote. That text and video, Ferrigno held, caused O’Brien to quit his job the next morning.
The judge found the text message followed two years of harassment by the Wyden children, including making the following statements directed at O’Brien:
“zest kitten”
“actual zest kitten”
“can you please order me food my little zest bunny”
“fag bag”
Ferrigno defined “zest” as a “slang term that can be used to describe effeminacy or flamboyance especially in the LGBTQ community. It is a derogatory term.”
Employers generally have a legal duty to protect employees from harassment and discrimination visited upon them as a result of their employment.
Bass Wyden has filed a motion to seal, or make unavailable to public view, the complaint in the civil lawsuit, which details similar alleged statements by the Wyden children.
Bass Wyden says male au pair also complained about daughter’s sexually inappropriate behavior and speech.
According to the unemployment decision, O’Brien informed Bass Wyden in September 2022 that her “approximately 11 year old daughter was behaving and speaking sexually inappropriately around him.” In his civil suit, Maltezos alleges the Wyden daughter’s behavior included “exposing herself, making sexually explicit comments, and inquiring into Mr. O’Brien’s intimate life.”
Ferrigno, in her unemployment decision, wrote Bass Wyden “does not necessarily remember this complaint but recalls the girls’ [sic] male au pair complaining about similar behavior.”
An au pair is a “usually young foreign person who cares for children and does domestic work for a family in return for room and board and the opportunity to learn the family’s language,” according to Merriam-Webster.
Judge dismissed Bass Wyden’s argument O’Brien quit because he knew he would be fired for stealing $650,000.
Bass Wyden and her spokespeople contend O’Brien stole $650,000 from his employer, learned that he would be fired for it, and quit instead. Ferrigno explains Bass Wyden testified in the unemployment hearing she learned of the alleged theft Sunday, September 29, 2024, the day before O’Brien quit, and planned to fire him at 9:30 am the next day. O’Brien quit at 8:25 am via email.
Ferrigno found there “is no testimony or that could lead to the conclusion that the claimant was aware, or was made aware, on a Sunday that he was to be fired on Monday.” The judge held O’Brien quit Monday morning due to the Wyden son’s bloody finger text the day before, “after experiencing prior incidents with the children and nothing changed.”
Senator Wyden’s wife and children were living in New York when he was last re-elected to represent Oregon in November 2022.
Ferrigno’s decision confirms Senator Wyden’s wife and children lived in New York City by September 2022. Wyden was re-elected to represent Oregon in the U.S. Senate November 8, 2022. The U.S. Constitution requires a senator to be an “inhabitant of that state for which he shall be chosen” on election day. “Inhabitant” has generally been construed by courts as someone who views the state as his primary residence, one in which he has a fixed residence that he views as his permanent home.
Ferrigno found O’Brien “worked mostly in the home of [Bass Wyden] and occasionally in the office.” O’Brien’s duties by September 2022 included driving the Wyden children to school in New York City, according to the civil complaint. Ferrigno found the daughter’s inappropriate sexual behavior and comments occurred in September 2022.
Notably, Ferrigno’s decision, which details Bass Wyden’s objections to her children’s behavior and comments toward O’Brien in her New York home, contains no reference to Senator Wyden whatsoever. Wyden owns homes in Portland, Oregon, and Washington, D.C.
The U.S. Senate, currently controlled by Republicans, determines whether its members meet the constitutional requirements for service, including habitation in the state that elected the would-be senator. Historically, the Senate has not expelled its members for failure to meet habitation requirements, but the House has expelled members for unlawful and unethical behavior, including most recently Republican George Santos (R-NY). The Senate can expel a member with a 2/3 vote. It can refuse to seat a newly elected or re-elected senator by a majority vote.
Wyden, 76, has said he plans to run for re-election in 2028, for what would be his seventh six-year Senate term. He has represented Oregon in Congress since 1981.
Bass Wyden may have argued O’Brien should have complained to company human resources.
Ferrigno found O’Brien “did not complain to HR because he complained to the children’s mother,” and was not required to complain to Bass Real Estate’s human resources department because “there was no evidence the children were employees” of the company.
Those findings suggest Bass Wyden objected to the award of unemployment benefits to O’Brien because he failed to complain about the Wyden children’s behavior, much of which presumably occurred in the Wyden New York home, to company human resources.
Bass Wyden has moved to dismiss the civil lawsuit. A hearing on her motion to seal the complaint is scheduled for October 30 in New York City.
In addition to being inhumane for Wyden's wife to contest the meager unemployment benefits sought by her former employee, it was stupid for her to do so. If she had just let him collect benefits, it would have cost her very little financially and she would have avoided a very expensive legal campaign and the negative publicity that has resulted for her and for Wyden. She doubled down on her foolishness by appealing the original award of the unemployment benefits out of what must have been petty vindictiveness. Pennywise, pound foolish, in terms of both money and reputation.
Why would a male au pair be an employee of a real estate company while working domestically for a LLC member? I suppose an LLC could offer that service as a benefit to a member and a tax write off for the business but is it permissible?
Also, it would be interesting to see if the Wyden campaign fund had donations totaling $650K recently.
Both reek of potential Wyden grift.