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09/18 14:30 CDT 14 former NC State athletes have filed a lawsuit alleging abuse
by ex-head trainer
14 former NC State athletes have filed a lawsuit alleging abuse by ex-head
trainer
By AARON BEARD
AP Sports Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) --- Fourteen former N.C. State male athletes have filed a
lawsuit in state court alleging sexual abuse under the guise of treatment and
harassment by the Wolfpack's former director of sports medicine, expanding a
case that began with a federal lawsuit from a single athlete three years ago.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday evening in Wake County Superior Court alleges years
of misconduct by Robert Murphy Jr., including improper touching of the genitals
during massages and intrusive observation while collecting urine samples during
drug testing.
Murphy, at N.C. State from 2012-22, is among nine defendants named
individually. Others are school officials accused of negligence in oversight
roles.
Twelve athletes are "John Doe" plaintiffs to protect anonymity, while two
former men's soccer 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 and April 2023. The Associated Press
typically doesn't identify those who say they have been sexually assaulted or
abused unless the person has spoken publicly, which Locke has done.
Durham-based attorney Kerry Sutton, who has represented plaintiffs in all four
lawsuits, filed to dismiss those pending Title IX lawsuits before moving the
case to state-level jurisdiction --- though now with 11 additional plaintiffs.
Wednesday's lawsuit outlines similar allegations of Murphy's conduct and the
school's response. It alleges concerns about Murphy reached former athletic
director Debbie Yow and other senior athletics officials, but nothing
substantive was done to investigate nor prevent Murphy from "free reign" in
working with male athletes despite being told to stop.
The lawsuit alleges Murphy's conduct was known to the point that athletes on
multiple teams joked derisively about it, while multiple athletes refused to
let Murphy treat them again. It also alleged Murphy's observation methods while
collecting drug-testing samples were "unsettling and undignified," with
athletes exposed from calves to chest and sometimes with Murphy standing
closely in the same bathroom stall.
"These 14 athletes have come forward together hoping to encourage others abused
by Rob Murphy to see it wasn't just them, they did nothing wrong, and NCSU
should have protected them," Sutton said in a statement on behalf of
co-counsels Lisa Lanier and Robert Jenkins.
"A culture of fear in the NCSU athletics department led to this tragic set of
circumstances. Athletes afraid of losing their scholarship or their spot on the
team, trainers afraid of reporting their boss, coaches afraid of getting
involved, directors afraid of harming NCSU's reputation. Murphy took advantage
of those fears to get away with abusing what we believe may turn out to be
hundreds of former Wolfpack athletes."
Jared Hammett, a Raleigh-based attorney working with Murphy in the earlier
cases, didn't immediately return messages from the AP requesting comment
Thursday. An attorney who previously worked with Murphy said in 2022 that
Murphy offered "appropriate" medical procedures but "nothing that was ever of a
sexual nature."
Defendants include Yow, who retired in 2019; former chancellor Randy Woodson;
and current AD Boo Corrigan. In an email Thursday, spokesman Mick Kulikowski
said N.C. State wouldn't comment on pending litigation. Yow declined to
comment, deferring to the school, in a text message to the AP.
Locke's 2022 lawsuit stated he learned during the Title IX investigation that
former men's soccer head coach Kelly Findley allegedly told a senior athletics
official in February 2016 that Murphy was engaging in conduct "consistent with
?grooming' behavior." That was a key point when a federal appeals court in
January reversed the dismissal of the "John Doe 2" lawsuit, determining that
Findley's comment was "objectively" an allegation qualifying as notification to
school officials.
Wednesday's lawsuit alleges Findley had raised concerns after the 2012 season
to a senior athletics official and wanted Murphy removed as the team's trainer.
The senior official reassigned Murphy to other teams in 2013, but Murphy
resumed working with soccer the next year in what the lawsuit calls "a
self-directed return."
That official's successor later instructed Murphy multiple times from 2016-21
to stop treating male athletes or hanging around the soccer team, and instead
focus on administrative duties. Yet as Murphy "failed to comply," the school
took no corrective action and elevated him to director of sports medicine in
2018, the lawsuit states.
Murphy went on administrative leave in January 2022 amid the Title IX
investigation tied to Locke, whose first lawsuit stated he learned that Murphy
no longer worked at N.C. State after an "involuntary separation" that summer.
That Title IX investigation ultimately found "a violation would have been
substantiated via the preponderance of the evidence standard" if Murphy
remained, according to a letter to Locke from the school's Office for
Institutional Equity and Diversity.
N.C. State has previously said campus police also investigated Locke's
complaint but filed no criminal charges.
___
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