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N.C. State University’s former director of sports medicine was arrested in Florida on 32 charges accusing him of making sexual contact with student-athletes while treating them.
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A Wake County grand jury indicted Robert Murphy Jr., 54, last week on nine felony charges of sexual contact or penetration under the pretext of medical treatment and 23 misdemeanor charges of sexual battery. Sexual battery is nonconsensual sexual contact for sexual arousal, gratification or abuse.
Florida law enforcement arrested Murphy, who was living in Ocala, Florida, on the charges Wednesday, according to inmate information on the Marion County Sheriff’s Office website. District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said her office is awaiting a decision on whether Murphy will fight extradition to North Carolina.
The indictment marks the first criminal action arising from accusations that have moved through federal, state and Wake County civil courts over the past four years.
Murphy denies all the allegations, his attorney Jarod Hammett has said. Hammett contends the civil litigation was fueled in part by attorneys seeking a large settlement from N.C. State.
“Those who brought this suit think if they shout sexual abuse loudly, people will stop listening to the obvious,” Hammett told The News & Observer in June. “Maybe they’re right.”
A year ago, Freeman confirmed an ongoing criminal investigation into Murphy’s actions.
The charges were presented to a grand jury, a secretive process in which the district attorney presents evidence and witnesses to at least 12 Wake County residents. To issue an indictment, jurors must find that a reasonable person would believe a crime was committed. The probable-cause standard is higher than reasonable suspicion but lower than the proof beyond a reasonable doubt required to convict someone.
Murphy has no criminal history. If he were convicted of one of the felonies, he would face a mandatory, minimum sentence of more than three years in prison, under North Carolina’s sentencing guidelines. But his case has a long way to go.
If Murphy challenges the charge, it could be the first court test of the new state crime that focuses on medical professionals
Murphy’s tenure as the Wolfpack’s director of sports medicine and head athletic trainer started in January 2012. He quit in June 2022 amid an internal investigation after a former soccer player complained to police and the university earlier that year.
The accusations became public when Benjamin Locke, an N.C. State soccer player from 2015 to 2017, filed a federal lawsuit in August 2022. Over time, 31 former male athletes joined the lawsuit, accusing Murphy of sexual harassment and abuse. The lawsuit moved to Wake County court in September 2025.
The lawsuits state that university officials recruited athletes to play sports at the school but left them vulnerable to Murphy’s harassment and abuse, despite complaints from coaches and others. University officials have denied the allegations. Murphy and university officials have vigorously challenged the allegations in court. University officials have contended in court documents that Murphy’s reported behavior wasn’t concerning enough to merit an investigation and that the people with the authority to take action weren’t told.
Twenty-five of the 31 plaintiffs allege in court documents that, when Murphy collected urine samples for drug tests, he often asked the men to fully expose themselves, allowing him to stare at their genitals.
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Eighteen of the former athletes said Murphy’s treatments and massages involved him touching or nearly touching their genitals, even when he was treating their feet or Achilles tendons, the lawsuit states. The criminal charges appear to relate to these alleged interactions.
Twelve of the men described both problematic drug tests and sexual abuse during massages or treatments.
In June, a Wake County judge dismissed the lawsuit against Murphy and former N.C. State officials. The judge agreed with their attorneys, who argued that the three-year statute of limitations had expired and that the case belonged before the Industrial Commission rather than in Superior Court.
The Industrial Commission hears claims alleging negligence by state employees and agencies.
The men filed a lawsuit with the Industrial Commission in 2025, but the case is on hold while the Superior Court case moves through the appeal process. Industrial Commission damages are capped at $1 million but can exceed that amount when divided among multiple plaintiffs.
Locke’s 2022 complaint triggered an N.C. State Title IX investigation, the university’s process for investigating allegations of sex-based discrimination and misconduct.
N.C. State’s investigation found Locke’s allegations credible, and an official told Locke that Murphy would have been fired had he not quit, according to the lawsuits.
Hammett said the investigation wasn’t “as thorough” as the lawsuits contend. Murphy also has questions about the final report, saying there was another version that found no evidence of abuse or harassment.
The N.C. Board of Athletic Trainer Examiners suspended Murphy’s athletic training license in December 2022 and revoked it in 2023.
Murphy didn’t contest or participate in the process because the board wouldn’t be able to ignore the ongoing lawsuit and likely would have waited for the court proceedings to be resolved, Hammett wrote.
No charges followed Locke’s report to police. His alleged abuse occurred before legislators adopted a 2018 law making sexual contact under the guise of medical care a felony.
Locke’s attorney, Kerry Sutton, has said that at least one of the anonymous plaintiffs alleged that the abuse occurred after the law was adopted and that he had spoken to Raleigh police about his experience.
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This story was originally published September 24, 2026 at 8:04 AM.