NC State Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Expands to 31 Former Athletes
Seventeen additional former male athletes from North Carolina State University have joined a state-level lawsuit, bringing the total number of plaintiffs to thirty-one. The legal action accuses the Wolfpack's former director of sports medicine, Robert L. Murphy Jr., of sexual abuse disguised as medical treatment and harassment.
Broadening Allegations of Misconduct
The complaint, submitted late last week in Wake County Superior Court, significantly broadens the allegations against Murphy. It describes years of alleged misconduct, including inappropriate genital contact during massages and invasive monitoring while athletes provided urine samples for drug testing. The case originally dates back more than three years to a federal lawsuit filed by a single athlete.
Protecting Anonymity of Plaintiffs
Of the thirty-one former athletes now involved in the lawsuit, all but two are listed as "John Doe" to preserve their anonymity. The two named plaintiffs are former members of the men's soccer team. One is Benjamin Locke, who filed the initial complaint in August 2022. The other is one of two athletes who brought separate federal lawsuits in February and April of 2023.
The Associated Press generally does not identify individuals who allege sexual assault or abuse unless they have spoken publicly, as Locke has done in this case.
Legal Proceedings and Attorney Statements
Durham-based attorney Kerry Sutton, who has represented plaintiffs in each lawsuit, filed to dismiss the pending Title IX lawsuits before moving the case to state-level jurisdiction in September. That initial state complaint added eleven new athletes, bringing the total to fourteen. The latest filing has more than doubled that number.
"While it is never good news to hear there are other men that have been suffering in silence due to what they experienced, I am encouraged by the bravery, vulnerability, and willingness of these men to come forward against injustice," Locke said Monday in a statement released by Sutton.
In a separate statement, Sutton added: "I hate to say it, but I expect to hear from more men in coming days who were sexually harassed or assaulted by Mr. Murphy."
Defense Response and Defendant Details
Seth Blum, a Raleigh-based attorney who has represented Murphy, did not immediately return an email from The Associated Press on Monday. He has previously defended Murphy forcefully in public comments, stating his client has been falsely accused and that there has yet to be "one scrap of credible evidence he assaulted anyone."
"Put simply, Robert Murphy did not do this," Blum said in a statement after the September lawsuit was filed.
Murphy, who worked at N.C. State from 2012 to 2022, is among nine defendants named individually in the lawsuit. The other defendants are school officials accused of negligence in their oversight roles.
