RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina judge has thrown out a legal case brought by 31 former NC State male athletes who accused the university’s former sports medicine director of sexual abuse and misconduct.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Bryan Collins issued orders Tuesday dismissing the claims against Robert M. Murphy Jr. and several NC State athletics administrators involved in oversight responsibilities, based on procedural grounds.
The legal action was brought to state court in February, stemming from an initial federal case filed by one athlete in 2022. The original complaint detailed years of improper conduct by Murphy, including inappropriate genital contact during massage sessions and invasive monitoring while athletes provided urine samples for drug screenings.
Collins approved Murphy’s legal team’s request for dismissal, determining that the time limit for filing such claims had run out for incidents going back to 2013.
The judge also threw out allegations against several athletics administrators, including former athletic director Debbie Yow and current AD Boo Corrigan, on jurisdictional issues. His decision stated that such complaints should be handled by the North Carolina Industrial Commission — a state body that addresses workplace issues involving NC State as a public institution — instead of civil court.
Jared Hammett, a Raleigh-based lawyer representing Murphy, released a statement to The Associated Press calling his client “someone who dedicated his life to working with athletes” while mentioning a “rush to judgment” that can affect “real people’s lives.”
“The truth is nothing happened but a man’s career being ruined for money,” Hammett said. “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.”
Durham-based lawyer Kerry Sutton, who has represented athletes since the original case began, said the former players intend to appeal.
“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 to the AP. “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.”
Twenty-nine of the 31 athletes are listed as “John Doe” plaintiffs to maintain their privacy, while two former men’s soccer players are identified by name.
One is Benjamin Locke, who brought the initial complaint in August 2022. The other is one of two athletes who filed separate federal lawsuits in February 2023 and April 2023. The AP typically doesn’t identify those who say they have been sexually assaulted or abused unless the person has spoken publicly about it, which Locke has done.
Sutton, who has represented plaintiffs in each lawsuit, filed to dismiss those pending Title IX lawsuits before moving the case to state-level jurisdiction in September 2025.
Murphy, who worked at NC State from 2012-22, was among nine defendants initially named individually. Others were university officials accused of negligence in oversight roles, saying concerns about Murphy’s conduct reached senior levels of the athletic department but the school’s response was insufficient.
Sutton and co-counsel Robert O. Jenkins filed in April to dismiss former NC State chancellor Randy Woodson as a defendant.
“N.C. State does not condone sexual misconduct of any kind,” the school said in a statement Tuesday evening. “The health and safety of our students and student-athletes is paramount to the university and our athletic programs.
“We agree with the court’s analysis and the decision that the law supports dismissal of the plaintiffs’ claims in this case. We recognize the immense courage it takes for someone to come forward, and our hearts go out to any student or student-athlete who has been impacted by distressing experiences.”
