Documents show that NC State officials had qualms about ex-sports medicine director years before Title IX investigation into sexual abuse allegations

Content warning: This story contains depictions of alleged sexual battery and sexual contact.Multiple people within the NC State athletic department were aware of alleged concerning behavior by former sports medicine director Robert Murphy for years before Murphy’s conduct led to a Title IX investigation in 2022.Murphy, who held that position with the Wolfpack from 2012 through 2022, was arrested in September on 23 counts of sexual battery and nine counts of felony sexual contact over allegations of sexual abuse of male athletes that he treated at the school.ESPN looked at over 1,000 pages of documents from the school’s Title IX investigation and revealed that a memo from a senior associate athletic director in 2019 noted Murphy’s conduct while treating players. Murphy resigned from his position in 2022.From ESPN:The 2019 memo was written by Murphy's manager at the time, senior associate athletic director Raymond Harrison, and addressed to outgoing athletic director Debbie Yow. Harrison raised concerns that Murphy was observed using questionable massage techniques, inviting male athletes to have their hair cut in his home and "virtually straddling a student athlete," which he later downplayed to investigators saying he had seen other trainers use similar techniques.Harrison also reported a comment Murphy made about "seeing an athlete naked in the team's locker room." Harrison called Murphy's comment "not appropriate" and wrote that "it should not be common practice for staff to be in the team locker rooms while [student-athletes] are getting dressed."Harrison later told investigators that he spoke to Murphy about his "massage techniques and different things and to make sure that if someone from the outside is looking in, that they're comfortable with what they see in your training room."Former NC State athletic director Debbie Yow said she could not remember reading the letter, though that she had “recalled being told of questionable behavior by Murphy.”The Title IX investigation happened after former men’s soccer player Ben Locke accused Murphy of inappropriately touching his genitals under the guise of medical treatment. Other athletes from across seven other sports have also said that they were inappropriately touched by Murphy.Over 30 men were part of a civil suit against Murphy that had been dismissed on procedural grounds and the criminal charges relate to instances with 14 alleged victims.Additionally, the ESPN report notes that former men’s soccer coach Kelly Findley had shared his concerns about Murphy in 2016 to the athletic department and had asked for Murphy to be reassigned."There was a couple guys he would pick out on the team that he was kind of grooming," Findley said, according to the transcripts. "There were certain guys that he kind of gravitated towards, and I felt like he was too friendly with them. ... I just felt like there was something a little, like, you're 40 years old. You should have your own life, and he never had his own life. He was just too attached to the players."Earlier this week, Murphy’s attorneys filed to have seven misdemeanor charges dismissed because they are past the statute of limitations. Murphy was arrested in Florida, but had been extradited and was in North Carolina in October, where his bond was set at $2 million.