Judge dismisses lawsuit by 31 former NC State athletes alleging sexual abuse, misconduct by ex-head trainer

A North Carolina judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by 31 ex-N.C. State male athletes who alleged sexual abuse by the athletic program’s former director of sports medicine.

The lawsuit was filed under the guise of treatment and harassment against Robert M. Murphy Jr., as well as N.C. State athletic officials who are tied to oversight rules.

However, Wake County Superior Court Judge Bryan Collins dismissed the claims, citing procedural reasons.

This lawsuit, which was filed in February in state court, was a case that began in 2022 when a single athlete came forward with their own federal lawsuit. It was alleged that Murphy had years of misconduct, which included improperly touching genitals during massages and intrusive observation during urine sampling for drug tests.

In the end, Collins granted a motion from Murphy’s attorneys to seek dismissal of the case, ruling the statute of limitations had expired in claims that went as far back as 2013.

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Also, Collins dismissed claims against athletics officials, including ex-athletic director Debbie Yow and current athletic director Boo Corrigan, on jurisdictional grounds.

Kery Sutton, who represented the N.C. State former athletes dating back to the original case, said they plan to appeal the judge’s decision.

“This dismissal has nothing at all to do with Mr. Murphy’s sexual abuse of these 31 former student-athletes,” Sutton said in a statement. “It was decided based only on questions of legal procedure. We plan to appeal this outcome and in coming days will be adding new claims against NCSU for men who have recently come forward.”

“The truth is nothing happened but a man’s career being ruined for money,” Jared Hammett, Murphy’s attorney, said in a statement. “As a lawyer I am just glad that we have been able to help another person who needed support and found himself needing that defense.”

Hammett’s statement also described Murphy as “someone who dedicated his life to working with athletes.”

Only two of the athletes involved in the lawsuit filed without using “John Doe” as the plaintiff’s name to protect anonymity. One of them was Benjamin Locke, a men’s soccer player with the Wolfpack who filed the original lawsuit in August 2022.

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“N.C. State does not condone sexual misconduct of any kind,” the school said in a statement. “The health and safety of our students and student-athletes is paramount to the university and our athletic programs.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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