14 former athletes now accuse NC State leaders of failing to stop sex abuse, harassment
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Number of athletes alleging NC State ignored years of sexual abuse by a trainer increases again.
- Lawsuits claim top officials, including Debbie Yow, received repeated complaints.
- Robert Murphy resigned from NC State in 2022; his license was revoked in 2023.
The number of former N.C. State athletes accusing university officials of not protecting them from a trainer’s alleged sexual abuse and harassment on campus has grown to 14 men.
Also alleged in a new lawsuit filed Wednesday afternoon, plaintiffs say that former athletics director Debbie Yow was aware of multiple complaints about the head trainer long before his resignation.
The claims are among the latest developments in an ongoing legal battle that began in 2022, when former soccer player Benjamin Locke filed a federal lawsuit. It accused Yow and other N.C. State leaders of not protecting him and other athletes from sexual abuse and harassment by longtime sports medicine director Robert Murphy. Two more athletes filed similar suits in 2023.
All of the 14 former athletes now signed onto the civil lawsuit received scholarships, and most of them played professional sports after leaving N.C. State, the lawsuit says. Together, they allege the abuse stretches from 2012 to 2021.
A culture of fear in the athletics department led to “this tragic set of circumstances,” said attorney Kerry Sutton, who is representing the men.
“Athletes afraid of losing their scholarship or their spot on the team, trainers afraid of reporting their boss, coaches afraid of getting involved, directors afraid of harming NCSU’s reputation,” Sutton said in a statement. “Murphy took advantage of those fears to get away with abusing what we believe may turn out to be hundreds of former Wolfpack athletes.”
State recruited the men, at ages 17 to 22, to play soccer and other sports at the school, but left them vulnerable to Murphy touching their genitals during massages, the men say. And to Murphy’s harassing behavior while he collected urine samples for drug testing.
Murphy had power over the young athletes because he determined their treatments after injuries and when they could return to their sports, court documents stress. And his actions resulted in physical and mental health problems for the players, the men claim.
Attorney Seth Blum in a written statement said that after three years of representing Murphy, there hasn’t been “one scrap of credible evidence that he assaulted anyone.”
Blum added: “He is a talented professional who has been targeted as an early victim in the new frontier of mass torts: suing universities for spurious allegations of sexual assault. Put simply, Robert Murphy did not do this.”
University attorneys have vigorously challenged the allegations in court filings. They contend that Murphy’s reported behavior wasn’t concerning enough to merit an investigation, and the people with the authority to take action weren’t told.
Why is Debbie Yow accused?
The lawsuit filed Wednesday contends that coaches and others raised numerous red flags to athletics department leaders, but no one took effective action. It claims Murphy’s alleged abuse and harassment of male students was widely known, accepted and joked about by students and staff, the lawsuit states.
In a December 2011 press release, Yow announced Murphy had been hired to oversee the operation of training and rehabilitation facilities, supervise the prevention and treatment of athletic-related injuries, and hire and evaluate staff.
For most of Murphy’s employment, Yow was the top administrator at the athletics department until her retirement in 2019. Michael Lipitz, deputy athletics director, was second in command and reported to Yow, according to the lawsuit and LinkedIn.
Sherard Clinkscales, a senior athletics administrator who reported to Yow, led the committee that chose Murphy as director of sports medicine.
When reached by the News & Observer Thursday morning, Yow declined comment and referred all questions to N.C. State officials.
The News & Observer also reached out to Lipitz to request comment, but he didn’t immediately respond. The News & Observer also reached out to Yow’s, Liptiz’s, Murphy’s and other officials’ attorneys, who also haven’t responded. A N.C. State spokesperson said the university doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
After Murphy’s first season working with the men’s soccer team, head coach Kelly Findley asked Clinkscales to remove Murphy as the designated trainer, the lawsuit states. Murphy engaged with soccer players “in inappropriate and overly familiar conduct” Findley told Clinkscales, according to the lawsuit.
Clinkscales then directed Murphy to treat other members of other sports teams in 2013, the lawsuit states. Yow and Lipitz knew of Findley’s report and reassignment, the lawsuit states.
But after the 2013 season, Murphy resumed treating and hanging out with soccer players, the lawsuit says. In 2014, an N.C. State employee told Lipitz that Murphy made male soccer players “uncomfortable during deep tissue massages on their groins” and when he colleced urine sample collections, the lawsuit states.
Lipitz didn’t speak with any affected students, investigate the concerns or take any other actions, the lawsuit states. But he did speak with Yow about Murphy, the lawsuit states.
In 2015, an unnamed employee told Yow “that Murphy was making male student-athletes uncomfortable during massage treatments by touching or massaging inappropriately close to their genitals,” the lawsuit contends.
In the spring of 2016, Findley told Clinkscales “that he had concerns regarding Murphy’s inappropriate sexual behavior towards the soccer players and that he believed Murphy was sexually grooming several student-athletes,” the lawsuit states.
More concerns about Murphy’s behavior
After Clinkscales left State in April 2016 for a job out of state, soccer coach Findley also told Clinkscales’ successor, Raymond Harrison, about his concerns about Murphy’s “inappropriate sexual behavior towards male soccer players, and that Murphy seemed to be keeping players in treatment for his own benefit,” the lawsuit states.
Harrison told Murphy to stop treating athletes and fraternizing with the soccer team, and to find a third-party vendor to collect the urine samples for the drug tests, the lawsuit says.
Murphy did not comply, the lawsuit says.
In 2019, Harrison told Yow about Murphy’s “inappropriate behavior towards student-athletes” that Murphy refused to follow the directives to stop treating athletes, the lawsuit alleges.
Murphy continued to treat student athletes and watch them during drug tests through early 2022, the lawsuit says.
Concerns about drug tests, sports massages
Only two former soccer players are identified by name in the lawsuit, including Locke. Court filings identify the other plaintiffs only as John Doe, without identifying the sports they played at N.C. State.
Three former N.C. State athletes describe Murphy touching their genitals and buttocks during treatments, in the court filing. Three describe Murphy making them pull their pants down as Murphy stood close and stared at their genitals during drug tests
Eight describe Murphy doing both.
During one treatment on John Doe 4, Murphy dug “his hands underneath Doe 4’s shorts and underwear with his hands, placing his hands between Doe 4’s legs to massage the top of his inner thigh, an area which Doe 4 had not experienced any pain in nor expressed feeling any pain in this area to Murphy,” the lawsuit says.
Murphy resigned in 2022 amid a campus Title IX investigation into the first claim of abuse filed by former soccer player Locke, who left high school at 17 to play for the Wolfpack.
Murphy has never been criminally charged. But at least one of the new plaintiffs recently spoke to Raleigh police about Murphy’s actions, Sutton said. In 2018, the state implemented a law that made it a felony for sexual contact under the guise of medical care.
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman confirmed there is a criminal investigation related to the complaint.
Murphy’s state Board of Athletic Trainer Examiners license was suspended in December 2022 and permanently revoked in 2023 based on the allegations of Locke and two others, according to the lawsuit.
Public accusations started in 2022
Locke, the plaintiff who filed the first lawsuit, first reported Murphy to Raleigh police in January 2022.
The complaint triggered an N.C. State Title IX investigation, which are prompted by allegations of sexual discrimination or harassment at the university through the Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity. Murphy told investigators that he preferred to apply athletic wraps on “bare skin,” the lawsuit says.
State officials forced Murphy to resign, and his last day as June 2, 2022, the lawsuit says.
A June 17, 2022 letter signed by David Elrod, N.C. State’s associate vice provost for Equal Opportunity and Equity said that the allegations would have been “substantiated” had Murphy still been employed.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday by attorneys Sutton, Bobby Jenkins and Lisa Lanier, only tell the plaintiffs’ allegations in a court battle that could continue for years, unless state officials decide to settle.
A change in venue
The plaintiffs’ filing on Wednesday move the already years-long battle from federal court into state cout. In federal court documents, university officials have stressed that their defense in this case is independent of the university’s stance against sexual exploitation on campus.
“Sexual misconduct of any kind is unacceptable, prohibited by N.C. State’s policies, and in direct opposition to the mission, culture, and standards of the university,” the university wrote in a court filing seeking to have a case dismissed.
On Friday, the plaintiffs filed a second lawsuit against N.C. State with the North Carolina Industrial Commission, which hears allegations of negligence by state employees or agencies.
The three federal lawsuits have faced numerous challenges, including one that was dismissed months after it was filed. The two others were also dismissed but revived on appeal.
In court documents responding to those suits, university officials stress that their defense in this case is independent of the university’s stance against sexual exploitation on campus.
“Sexual misconduct of any kind is unacceptable, prohibited by N.C. State’s policies, and in direct opposition to the mission, culture, and standards of the university,” the university wrote in a court filing seeking to have a case federal lawsuit dismissed.
Sutton moved to have the federal cases dismissed Wednesday before filing the lawsuit.
This is a breaking news story that will be updated as more information is available.
Steve Wiseman, The News & Observer’s sports editor, contributed to this article.
Virginia Bridges covers criminal justice in the Triangle and across North Carolina for The News & Observer. Her work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The N&O maintains full editorial control of its journalism.
This story was originally published September 18, 2025 at 8:02 AM with the headline "14 former athletes now accuse NC State leaders of failing to stop sex abuse, harassment."
