Six female doctors at Yale University have launched a sexual harassment and assault lawsuit against a supervisory Yale professor and anesthesiologist, alleging that for years he groped, forcibly kissed and made other unwanted sexual contact with female physicians while retaliating against those who complained.

In a broad-ranging action filed on Thursday in Connecticut federal court, the female physicians, who were each supervised by defendant Dr. Manuel Lopes Fontes, also name as defendants the university and Yale New Haven Hospital. And they allege sweepingly that Yale, as an institution, has used a “pattern of deliberate indifference” for many years to effectively silence and blunt the claims of various women who have accused Yale men in power of abuse or harassment.