Title IX investigators found a former North Carolina State University sports medicine director’s conduct while treating a male athlete for sports injuries was “unwelcome and of a sexual nature,” “pervasive” and “sufficiently severe,” according to redacted documents obtained by ESPN.
In addition, a senior athletic department official told investigators that sports medicine director Robert Murphy’s alleged behavior had raised concerns as early as 2014 or 2015, nearly eight years before NC State sought a Title IX probe, sources familiar with that investigation told ESPN.
And former men’s soccer coach Kelly Findley told investigators that he reported his concerns about Murphy’s behavior, including what he called grooming, to university administrators as early as 2016, the sources said.
The school launched a Title IX investigation in January 2022 after Ben Locke, a former men’s soccer player, filed a report with the NC State University Police Department, according to the documents.
Locke and 30 other former student athletes have since filed a civil lawsuit against Murphy and eight others who worked as university officials when the alleged abuses occurred. They claim in the lawsuit that the school repeatedly ignored multiple warnings starting as early as 2012 about Murphy’s questionable behavior.
The university announced Murphy’s hiring in December 2011. He left in 2022 following the launch of the investigation.
NC State did not respond to requests for comment but previously told ESPN that “the health and safety of students and student-athletes is paramount to NC State Athletics and the university.”
Murphy’s lawyer also did not respond to requests for comment, but in a March 12 court filing, he asserted that the defendant was acting “within the scope of his profession” and that the civil claims against him are beyond the state’s statute of limitations.
North Carolina enacted a law in 2018 making sexual contact under the guise of medical care a felony offense. The county district attorney’s office with jurisdiction over NC State says there is an ongoing criminal investigation into Murphy.
Kerry Sutton, an attorney for the plaintiffs, declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
NC State’s Equal Opportunity and Equity office conducted the six-month-long internal investigation that included interviews with approximately a dozen people, according to the documents obtained by ESPN. The investigation focused solely on Locke’s allegations and determined by a preponderance of the evidence that Murphy made repeated nonconsensual contact of a sexual nature with Locke’s genitals with his bare hands or fingers during therapeutic massage sessions.
Investigators noted in the documents that treatment of injuries near the groin and genitalia can “make it difficult to discern whether the conduct was severe in nature,” but they concluded that Murphy’s conduct was severe and pervasive enough to constitute sexual misconduct.
“Murphy’s physical contact with Locke’s genitalia, based on the treatment he was receiving, would not have been medically necessary,” one document states.
Locke, who was 17 when he first received treatments from Murphy, told investigators he felt like the “‘perfect target’ for Murphy’s “abuse” due to his age and repeated injuries, the documents state.
“Locke’s statements reflect his perception that he lacked the power to question how Murphy went about administering the treatments and his belief that his status as a student athlete would be compromised if he registered any complaint with Murphy,” one document states. “Accordingly, it is reasonable to conclude that Murphy’s conduct created an intimidating and abusive environment for Locke.”
Shortly after enrolling at NC State, Locke required surgery on both shins and received treatment from Murphy, according to the documents. The day after Locke’s surgery, he says Murphy drove the student-athlete from his apartment where he was recovering to the training facilities and instructed Locke to shower in the men’s locker room while Murphy stood nearby and observed, claiming the supervision was necessary as a safety precaution and for wound care.
Locke reported being impaired due to prescribed drugs for pain management and said he believed that Murphy assumed that he could “get away with showering with this kid who’s 17 years old, a freshman, and he’s not gonna say anything.”
Additionally, Locke reported that Murphy “touched, cupped, held, and flicked Locke’s penis” upward of 100 times over the course of a two-year period during various forms of medical treatment that often involved having Locke remove his underwear, according to the documents.
During an interview with investigators, Murphy denied the allegations that he “cupped or flicked” Locke’s penis but admitted to “touching Locke’s genitalia with the back of his hand,” according to the documents. The investigation could not determine the exact number of instances the unwanted touching occurred.
Murphy also told investigators that he never mandated Locke remove his underwear but “it likely became a thing” over time. Additionally, Murphy stated that “he may have requested Locke to not wear underwear during treatment … to have greater access to the affected tissue.”
Locke told investigators that Murphy regularly requested the former athlete undress from the waist down so that Murphy could apply a soft bandage wrap around the upper thigh and leg, known as hip spica wraps. Locke said the former director of sports medicine would kneel “in front of Locke with Murphy’s head being ‘face to face’ with Locke’s penis” during the wrapping process, according to the documents. He also reported that there were times when he was “completely naked during treatment with Murphy.”
Murphy told investigators that the wrap “doesn’t work as well in underwear” and that he had a “preference” for the wrap to be on bare skin.
Investigators interviewed other sports medicine experts to provide context for when a trainer might need to observe an athlete’s genitals for diagnosis or treatment. The documents noted that there are “‘limited circumstances’ when such observation was required such as traumatic injury to the genitalia.” The documents also noted that no such traumatic injury existed in Locke’s medical records.
Additionally, according to the documents, Murphy observed while a team doctor performed a prostate examination of Locke to rule out possible prostatitis, an inflammation of the prostate gland. Locke told investigators he thought it was “a little weird that [Murphy’s] sitting in here” in the room by his feet while Locke was positioned on a training table as the doctor performed the prostate exam. Locke said he did not object to Murphy’s presence in the exam room.
Locke said he did not realize the various requests from Murphy were unusual until he transferred to play at Lipscomb University and “was in shell shock” at how different things were after his new trainers told him they would not come “anywhere close to the [groin] region,” one document stated. Locke said he was never asked to remove his underwear during his time at his new school.
In addition to determining that Murphy’s behavior toward Locke was “unwelcome” and “of a sexual nature,” the investigation found the former soccer player was likely “intimidated by Murphy’s authority and position” and “concerned by potential repercussions” such as limited playing time.
Investigators acknowledged the “power imbalance” between Murphy as the director of sports medicine and Locke. As a result, the school determined that Murphy’s behavior “created an intimidating, threatening, or abusive educational environment.”
According to the documents, Murphy participated in an initial interview with investigators but declined subsequent follow-up interview requests.
NC State placed Murphy on administrative leave when it launched the investigation and issued a letter of intent to terminate him in March 2022, according to letters reviewed by ESPN. He eventually resigned from his role before the investigation concluded in June 2022.
The university announced it hired Murphy in a December 2011 news release and touted his work at previous stops that included Mercer University and the Atlanta Falcons. Less than a year after he started, Findley — then the men’s soccer coach — informed a school administrator that Murphy’s conduct was inappropriate and “overly familiar,” according to the state lawsuit filed in North Carolina. The complaint alleges that Findley told athletic department leadership that he believed Murphy was “grooming” several male soccer players.
What the school knew and when it knew it is at the heart of the current civil court case. The lawsuit claims officials were alerted in 2015, 2016 and 2019, while also alleging that Findley warned school officials of Murphy’s conduct in 2012.
ESPN spoke with multiple former athletes who allege Murphy sexually abused or harassed them. Most of the men asked to be identified as John Doe, as they are identified in the state lawsuit. They played for NC State ranging in dates from 2013 to 2024.
The men described experiences similar to Locke’s, alleging that Murphy touched their genitals while he applied hip spica wraps or while performing therapeutic massages. Some described unnecessarily intrusive drug testing methods that required near nudity from the student athletes. Additionally, multiple athletes described Murphy regularly hanging out in the locker room and shower facility, something coaches and other trainers rarely did.
One former athlete told ESPN that Murphy’s reputation for touching athletes on their genitals was so widely known that they called it the “Rob Murphy special.”
“If somebody was gonna go see him for no matter what it was — back pain, arm pain, head pain, glute pain,” a plaintiff known as John Doe 9 said, “the joke was that whatever it was, he was going to find a way to touch your genitals.”
So far, 33 men have joined or said they plan to join the lawsuit.
