Former North Carolina State University athletic trainer Robert Murphy Jr. faces more than two dozen charges, including nine felonies, after being criminally indicted in Wake County on allegations of sexual contact under the pretext of medical treatment.<\/p>\n
Murphy was already facing allegations in a 2022 civil lawsuit<\/a> brought by dozens of former Wolfpack male athletes. He now faces nine counts of felony sexual conduct and 23 misdemeanor sexual battery counts. He was arrested Wednesday night and was being held in Marion County<\/a>, Florida.<\/p>\n Murphy was NC State\u2019s Director of Sports Medicine<\/a> from January 2012 to June 2022, when he resigned. Murphy was suspended from his position in January 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n A Wake County grand jury indicted Murphy on Sept. 14 in part on allegations that in the fall of 2020 he willfully committed a felony when, during the course of medical treatment, indicated that sexual contact between Murphy and an unidentified plaintiff was necessary and that the plaintiff\u2019s health would benefit from the contact. Prosecutors allege that the act violated a North Carolina law prohibiting sexual contact under the pretext of medical treatment, according to documents viewed by WRAL.\u00a0<\/p>\n The indictment is sealed.<\/p>\n Jared Hammett, a lawyer who represented Murphy in previous civil cases, said previously that Murphy would love the opportunity to clear his name. On Thursday, he and attorney Seth A. Blum said they were disappointed the case was brought.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are very disappointed that the Wake County District Attorney\u2019s office would choose to prosecute based on a changing story,\u201d Hammett and Blum said in a statement to WRAL. \u201cFour years ago law enforcement concluded there was not enough to support charges. Apparently, after enough careful editing, someone came up with a story that got a prosecutor\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n \u201cWe, as always, believe that when people hear the actual facts of what occurred, Mr. Murphy will be cleared and the truth will be paramount.\u201d<\/p>\n NC State Chancellor Kevin Howell worked in the NC State administration all but two years since 2006 and became chancellor in 2025. He is a former NC State athlete.<\/p>\n \u201cNC State does not tolerate sexual assault of any kind,\u201d Howell told WRAL ahead of the NC State Board of Trustees meeting Thursday. \u201cWe care about our students. We care about our student athletes. That was something that happened, I believe, years ago, but we are fully cooperating with the investigation. We do not condone sexual assault of any kind. Period.<\/p>\n “I don’t want to go into it because it’s an ongoing case, and we’re not allowed to talk about ongoing \u2014 this is a criminal case. But I just want our students to know, NC State does not condone sexual assault of any kind.”\u00a0<\/p>\n NC State issued a statement Thursday morning.<\/p>\n \u201cSexual misconduct of any kind is unacceptable,\u201d NC State said in the statement. \u201cThe health and safety of students and student-athletes is paramount to NC State Athletics and the university. We are aware of the charges filed by Wake County against Robert Murphy. We will cooperate with law enforcement in this matter.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2022, Murphy was sued in federal court by former NC State soccer player Benjamin Locke<\/a> on allegations that Murphy touched the athletes\u2019 genitals during treatments that didn\u2019t require it. The case has since expanded<\/a> to more than 30 athletes<\/a>, who have accused Murphy of similar allegations. Locke and Parker Cross<\/a>, also a former soccer player, are the only named plaintiffs in the civil suit. The rest are listed as John Doe.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sexual contact under the guise of medical treatment is a Class C felony in North Carolina and conviction carries a sentence of up to 182 months. Conviction under the statute requires mandatory registration as a sex offender. Sexual battery is a misdemeanor.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese charges against Rob Murphy validate Ben Locke and 33 other former Wolfpack athletes and bolster their claims of being sexually abused at NCSU,\u201d said Kerry Sutton, the attorney for the athletes in the civil case. \u201cOur fight for these men and others expected to come forward will not stop until Murphy and NC State stand accountable to these young men and to the people of North Carolina. Anything less is unthinkable.\u201d<\/p>\n In June, a Wake County judge dismissed a civil lawsuit filed by the athletes against Murphy and a host of NC State officials. Some claims made against the university officials must be handled by the North Carolina Industrial Commission, the judge wrote.<\/p>\n “We appreciate the hard work of law enforcement and the courage of the victims in this case,\u201d Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said in a statement Thursday. \u201cWe are intent on seeking justice.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former North Carolina State University athletic trainer Robert Murphy Jr. faces more than two dozen charges, including nine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[3071,2818,18712,99],"class_list":["post-859311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-crime","tag-sexual-assault","tag-sexual-battery","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}