The number of alleged victims in a sex abuse lawsuit against former NC State coach Robert Murphy Jr. more than doubled when 17 former male Wolfpack athletes joined as plaintiffs. An amended complaint filed last week includes a total of 31 plaintiffs, which attorney Kerry Sutton said includes athletes from eight different sports teams. Three former athletes filed individual lawsuits in 2022 and 2023, and the case grew in September when 11 alleged victims filed a fourth lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that Murphy engaged in misconduct over several years, including inappropriate touching of genitals during massages and intrusive observation while collecting urine samples during drug testing.
Murphy, who worked at NC State from 2012 to 2022 and was promoted to director of sports medicine in 2018, is one of nine defendants named in the lawsuit. The others are school officials, including former athletic director Debbie Yow, who are accused of negligence. Prosecutors allege that Yow and other administrators were aware of Murphy’s behavior but failed to investigate him or prevent him from working with male athletes.
“The health and safety of students and student-athletes is of the utmost importance to NC State Athletics and the university,” a university spokesperson said. told ESPN on Monday. “Sexual misconduct of any kind is unacceptable, prohibited by NC State policy, and in direct contradiction to the university’s mission, culture and standards. NC State is reviewing the lawsuit and determining appropriate next steps.”
NC State placed Murphy on administrative leave and fired him in 2022, the same year former men’s soccer player Benjamin Locke filed the first lawsuit. That complaint stated that former men’s soccer coach Kelly Findley told a senior athletic department official in 2016 that Murphy exhibited behavior consistent with “grooming behavior.” The September lawsuit added that Findley raised concerns four years earlier, in 2012, and requested that Murphy be removed from his role as the team’s coach.
Murphy was fired from his position in 2013 but resumed working with the men’s soccer team in 2014. Athletic department officials allegedly told Murphy between 2016 and 2021 that he should refrain from treating male athletes and distance himself from the men’s soccer team, but the lawsuit states they did not enforce those requests when he did not comply.
“A culture of fear within the NCSU athletic department has led to this tragic set of circumstances,” Sutton said in September. “Athletes afraid of losing their scholarships or their spot on the team, coaches afraid of reporting to their boss, coaches afraid of getting involved, directors afraid of damaging NCSU’s reputation. Murphy took advantage of those fears to get away with abusing what we believe could turn out to be hundreds of former Wolfpack athletes.”
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