NEW HAVEN, CT (AP) -- The former assistant to a Yale professor recognized for his innovative cancer research has filed a lawsuit accusing him of sexual harassment.
Mary Beth Garceau, who filed the lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court, accuses Yale of failing to address her allegations against Joseph Schlessinger, chairman of the pharmacology department.
An investigator with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights found reasonable cause to support Garceau's allegations, officials said.
``From the very beginning of plaintiff's employment she was subject to a sexual, offensive and harassing work environment on account of persistent, unbearable and perverted conduct on the part of Dr. Schlessinger,'' the lawsuit states. ``Because Yale had refused to address her concerns, preferring to protect a powerful department head, plaintiff was forced to resign her position at Yale.''
Schlessinger's office referred calls seeking comment to Yale spokesman Tom Conroy, who denied the allegations.
``The university does not believe there was a violation of the law and it will defend against the lawsuit,'' Conroy said, declining further comment because the lawsuit is pending.
Schlessinger has won numerous awards for his cancer research, including a $1 million prize he shared earlier this year.
His pioneering studies paved the way for discovering new families of drugs used to treat many cancers and other diseases caused by dysfunctions in particular enzymes, Yale said at the time. A company he co-founded developed the drug Sutent/SU11248 to treat renal cancers and gastrointestinal stromal tumors that was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in January.
Garceau, an administrative associate who resigned in 2004, says Schlessinger told a lewd and sexually offensive joke in July 2001, on her first day on the job. She says he discussed his marital infidelity, claiming to have slept with 46 women.
``I don't see anything wrong if we wanted to sleep together,'' Schlessinger told Garceau, the lawsuit states.
Garceau accuses Schlessinger of commenting about her breasts and a graduate student's underwear. She say Schlessinger showed her photos of large-breasted women and a hard-core pornography Web site on his computer.
She alleges Schlessinger showed her a nude photo of a woman he claimed to be his wife.
``At that very moment, another doctor, Schlessinger's wife, appeared and observed him showing plaintiff the picture and started to yell at her husband,'' the lawsuit states.
His wife hung up the phone when contacted for comment Friday.
Garceau said she repeatedly complained to Yale officials about Schlessinger's conduct. Her lawsuit seeks back pay and benefits as well as damages.
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