Thirteen more women claim in a lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Mercer County on Tuesday that they were sexually assaulted by a former OBGYN who lost his license in 2024 and faces similar charges from dozens of other one-time patients. New York-based law firm Levy Konigsberg filed a civil complaint in state Superior Court in Mercer County on behalf of the women, New Jersey residents who allege former Dr. Bruce Pierce assaulted them during routine office visits dating back to 2003.
Jerome “Jerry” Block, a partner at Levy Konigsberg, told the New Jersey Monitor he expects more women will continue to come forward since Pierce had practiced for decades under a license granted in 1996. Block said Pierce’s employers ignored evidence that he was a “serial sexual predator.” “We’ve seen in these cases that women complained about Dr. Pierce for years and that these corporate defendants failed to act. Companies operating health systems cannot ignore red flags and put profits over patient safety,” Block said.
At least 45 women have accused Pierce of sexual abuse through a handful of civil lawsuits filed in the past year alone, several of which also blamed the clinic where he worked and entities that oversaw its operations. The claim filed Tuesday also alleges Pierce’s employer, Delaware Valley OB-GYN and Infertility Group; national provider network Lifeline Medical Associates; and Unified Women’s Healthcare, a regional network that oversaw the clinic’s business operations, were negligent in their training and oversight of his work, oblivious to an obvious pattern of abuse, and failed to contact law enforcement or protect patients.
As medical providers, these entities and their representatives were “outrageous in their disregard for Plaintiff’s rights and safety,” the complaint reads. The plaintiffs include first and longtime patients, pregnant women, and one who had invited Pierce to her children’s wedding and considered him “family.” “Provider Defendants gave Pierce authority, space, power, and control over Plaintiffs with no reasonable oversight. It was that authority, space, power, access, and control that allowed Pierce to commit the wrongful conduct and sexual abuse against Plaintiffs,” the complaint says.
According to the claim, the women faced psychological trauma, depression, anxiety, humiliation, and more, and continue to be impacted by the abuse. They have also lost trust in medical professionals, particularly men, have avoided medical care and intimate exams, and have a diminished quality of life as a result, it says.
An attorney who represented Pierce in an earlier civil suit declined to comment on the latest complaint, which they had not seen. Calls to Delaware Valley, Lifeline, and Unified were not returned. The new case comes just weeks after two other women filed separate lawsuits in Mercer County that allege similar abuse by Pierce and blame Delaware Valley, Lifeline, and Unified for not doing more to protect patients, court records show.
“Plaintiff was entitled to competent, ethical, and safe medical care. Instead, she was subjected to sexual assault in a clinical setting, facilitated by the failures of Defendants to supervise, control, and protect her,” wrote attorneys from a Piscataway firm representing one victim in papers filed Oct. 6.
In late July, a Philadelphia firm filed a lawsuit on behalf of 31 New Jersey women who claim they faced similar assaults by Pierce and blame his employer for failing to address the problem. At least eight of them reported the behavior to other employees at the Delaware Valley clinic, and several times there were chaperones in the room when the alleged abuse occurred, according to the lawsuit.
In October 2024, the state Office of the Attorney General called for the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners to investigate Pierce and, af
