Patrick Bryant

Introduction

Brendan Patrick Bryant, a 53-year-old South Carolina software entrepreneur and the ex-fiancé of Rep. Nancy Mace, was arrested and charged with voyeurism on October 14, 2026, over an alleged 2018 incident in which John Douglas Osborne sexually assaulted an intoxicated, incapacitated 23-year-old woman while Bryant and Eric Bernard Bowman watched, according to sworn statements by agents of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), which brought the charges. The charges arrived twenty months after Mace named Bryant and three of his business associates on the House floor as sexual predators in a February 2025 speech — accusations Bryant completely denied and answered with a defamation lawsuit. Bryant, Osborne and Bowman were all booked into the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center in Charleston County.

Background Information

Bryant is a Charleston software entrepreneur who was engaged to Mace for about 19 months until their breakup in late 2023; the alleged incident predates the engagement entirely. On February 1, 2025, Mace delivered a nearly hourlong House floor speech naming the men and describing photos and videos she said she found on Bryant’s cellphone while they were still together: “I accidentally uncovered some of the most heinous crimes against women imaginable — we are talking about rape, nonconsensual photos, nonconsensual videos of women and underage girls, and the premeditated, calculated exploitation.” SLED later confirmed it had an open and active investigation dating to December 14, 2023, begun after being contacted by U.S. Capitol Police: “The subject of the investigation is Patrick Bryant.” In May 2025, the woman from the 2018 incident — Bryant’s employee at the time — sued Bryant, Osborne and Bowman, alleging she was sexually assaulted while unconscious at Bowman’s Sullivan’s Island home; she said she learned of video of the incident only through Mace in 2024.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charges filed; allegations unadjudicated. The counts below are criminal charges filed by SLED in Charleston County. The conduct they describe is alleged in arrest affidavits, not proven: Bryant, Osborne and Bowman have not been tried, and all are presumed innocent unless and until convicted. Bryant denied the underlying accusations when Mace first made them and has not been quoted responding to the charges themselves.

Per the arrest warrant affidavits, the woman — 23, working for Bryant at the time — consumed alcoholic beverages at Bowman’s Sullivan’s Island home, fell into a swimming pool, and passed out on a sofa, unable to speak coherently or walk normally. While she was unconscious, the three men allegedly discussed who would carry out the acts and agreed Osborne would have sex with her while the other two watched; Osborne is alleged to have sexually assaulted her, and Bryant and Bowman allegedly took photographs of the incident. The alleged assault would have gone unreported but for a witness who happened to be watching the home’s security-camera feed: she saved two still photographic images and chronicled what she saw in a journal, per SLED.

On October 14, 2026, SLED announced the charges: Osborne, 46, with first-degree assault and battery and two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct; Bryant and Bowman, 46, each with voyeurism; Bowman additionally with obstruction of justice — agents say he factory-reset a cellphone he knew investigators were seeking under warrant — and with publishing the name of a victim of criminal sexual conduct after posting her name and a video of her on X. All three were arrested that morning and scheduled for Charleston County bond hearings. A fourth man Mace named in her speech has not been charged.

Public Reaction and Consequences

After the arrests, Mace released a statement detailing the 25 bills she says will protect victims of sexual assault, harassment or discrimination, including protection for alleged victims in retaliatory defamation and libel lawsuits “that may result from allegations they bring to light.” Bryant did not return a message seeking comment on the charges, and attorneys listed for Bowman and Osborne in other cases did not immediately respond. When Mace first made the accusations in February 2025, Bryant “completely denied the allegations,” telling The Associated Press: “I take this matter seriously and will cooperate fully with any necessary legal processes to clear my name.” In his November 2025 defamation suit against Mace, he claimed the May 2025 civil suit was fabricated by Mace and Bowman’s estranged wife; Mace asserted protections under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause.

Current Status

Bryant is charged with one count of voyeurism and, as of October 14, 2026, had been booked into the Al Cannon Detention Center with a Charleston County bond hearing scheduled; the 9th Circuit Solicitor’s Office will prosecute the case. No trial has occurred and no count has been adjudicated; the voyeurism charge rests on the allegation that he watched the 2018 assault and helped photograph it. His defamation suit against Mace and the May 2025 civil suit against the three men remain part of the record, with no reported resolution in the fetched coverage.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The arc from House floor accusation to criminal charges is the case’s significance: Mace named four men in February 2025, was sued for defamation within a month by one of them, and watched SLED — investigating since December 2023 — charge three of the four in October 2026, with the affidavit evidence (the witness’s journal, the saved security-feed stills, the photographs) tracking what she described. For Bryant, a private software entrepreneur until the speech, the consequences now run in three directions at once: criminal voyeurism charges, the pending civil suit by his former employee, and a defamation counter-offensive that Mace’s Speech or Debate Clause defense has so far blunted. The case also put the alleged victim’s ordeal back at the center — she learned video of her own assault existed only when Mace told her in 2024 — and made SLED’s citation of that 2023 start date, predating the speech, its own statement about why the investigation took this long.

Sources

NY Post, “Nancy Mace’s ex-fiancé, 3 biz partners charged with sex crimes,” Oct 14, 2026 — source
KCRA 3 (Associated Press), “Ex-fiance of US Rep. Nancy Mace and 2 others charged with sex crimes she detailed in House speech,” Oct 14, 2026 — source
WCBD Count on 2 (Nexstar), “3 men charged with sexual misconduct after accusations by Rep. Mace, SLED says,” Oct 14, 2026 — source
Newsweek, “Men Accused by Nancy Mace Charged Over Alleged Sexual Assault—Who They Are,” Oct 14, 2026 — source
Post and Courier via Yahoo News, “3 men named by US Rep. Nancy Mace in House floor speech charged with sex crimes,” Oct 14, 2026 — source