Ex-NC State Trainer Arrested In Florida On 32 Sexual Abuse Charges

Former N.C. State sports medicine director Robert Murphy Jr. is behind bars in Florida after he was hit with 32 sex-related charges for alleged sexual touching during treatments.

Murphy, 54, was arrested Wednesday night in Florida just days after a grand jury indicted the former Wolfpack athletic official on 30-plus charges, including 9 felony "sexual contact under the guise of medical treatment" counts and 23 sexual battery counts.

He's being held in the Marion County Jail (FL).

Murphy ran N.C. State's sports medicine program for a decade. He was suspended in January 2022 after a former soccer player, Ben Locke, filed a criminal complaint with police, accusing the trainer of abuse that started in 2015.

He resigned in June 2022 after the university moved to fire him.

Locke filed a lawsuit against Murphy, and other alleged victims then began to come forward, eventually joining the case.

By early 2026, 31 male athletes, mostly John Does, were suing Murphy for sexual abuse. Specifics of the allegations are unclear.

Wake County prosecutors investigated Murphy criminally, and a North Carolina grand jury indicted him on 32 counts in September.