Raleigh, North Carolina – Seventeen former NC State male athletes have joined a state lawsuit alleging Sexual assault under the guise of treatment and harassment By the Wolfpack’s former sports medicine director, bringing the total to 31 in the case that began with Federal lawsuit from one athlete More than three years ago.
The complaint filed in Wake County Superior Court late last week expands a case alleging years of misconduct by Robert L. Murphy Jr., including inappropriate touching of the genitals during a massage and intrusive surveillance while collecting urine samples during a drug test.
All but two of the 31 athletes are John Doe plaintiffs to protect their anonymity, while two former football players are named.
One is Benjamin Locke, who filed the original complaint in August 2022. The other is one of two athletes who filed their own federal lawsuits in February 2023 and April 2023. The Associated Press does not typically identify those who say they have experienced sexual assault or abuse unless the person speaks publicly about it, which Locke did.
Durham-based attorney Kerry Sutton, who has represented the plaintiffs in each lawsuit, filed to dismiss those pending lawsuits. Title IX lawsuits before the case was transferred to statewide jurisdiction in September. That complaint added 11 new athletes to bring the total to 14 — and now the case has doubled with the latest filing.
“While it is never good news to hear that there are other men suffering in silence because of what they went through, I am encouraged by these men’s courage, vulnerability, and willingness to step up against injustice,” Locke said Monday in a statement issued by Sutton.
In a separate statement, Sutton said: “I hate to say it, but I expect to hear from more men in the coming days who have been sexually harassed or assaulted by Mr. Murphy.”
Seth Bloom, a Raleigh-based attorney who represented Murphy, did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press on Monday. He has vigorously defended Murphy in previous comments, saying he has been falsely accused and there is still “not a single piece of credible evidence that he assaulted anyone.”
“Robert Murphy simply did not do it,” Bloom said in a statement after the lawsuit in September.
Murphy, who served at North Carolina State from 2012 to 2022, is among nine defendants named individually. Others are school officials accused of negligence in supervisory roles.
The lawsuits detail similar allegations about Murphy’s behavior and the school’s response by failing to stop him, even when concerns reached the upper levels of the athletic department. The latest filing describes the 31 former athletes as “victims of sexual assault, sexual exploitation and sexual harassment” while saying Murphy “violated his position of trust to abuse rather than treat.”
The allegations brought by 17 new plaintiffs centered largely on Murphy’s handling and oversight of drug testing. Those allegations centered on him directing athletes to raise their shirts over their chests and lower their shorts or pants to their ankles while Murphy stared at their genitals from a few feet away and sometimes from inside the bathroom stall itself.
One athlete described his feeling as “uncomfortable and vulnerable,” while another felt “humiliated,” according to the lawsuit. In another case, an athlete was so uncomfortable that he could not urinate “even after drinking three Diet Coke drinks” and returned the next day “to repeat the same invasive process,” the lawsuit says.
Nearly six of the 17 also alleged that Murphy inappropriately touched their genitals during massage or other rehabilitation treatments amid the injuries. One athlete dealing with an Achilles tendon injury in his lower leg claimed that Murphy began massage treatments but gradually moved upwards until he reached the athlete’s groin. That athlete asked Murphy to stop and refused to allow Murphy to treat him again, according to the complaint.
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