NC State University officials want out of lawsuit accusing trainer of abuse
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Seven former N.C. State athletics administrators sought dismissal from the lawsuit.
- Plaintiffs allege Murphy exposed and touched athletes during his 2012–June 2022 tenure.
- Defense argued that negligence claims belong in the state’s Industrial Commission.
Former N.C. State University administrators argued Wednesday that they should be dismissed from a lawsuit accusing them of allowing a sports trainer to sexually harass male scholarship athletes.
The seven administrators include former athletics director Debbie Yow and her 2019 successor, Eugene Corrigan. They also include former and current deputy, associate and assistant athletics directors.
The lawsuit states that university officials recruited athletes to play sports at the school but left them vulnerable to trainer Robert Murphy’s sexual harassment and abuse, despite complaints from coaches and others.
Murphy served as the Wolfpack’s director of Sports Medicine and head athletics trainer from January 2012 until he quit in June 2022 amid an internal investigation after a former athlete filed a complaint earlier that year in January.
Twenty-five of the 31 plaintiffs complained in court documents that, when Murphy collected urine samples for drug tests, he often asked the men to fully expose themselves, allowing him to stare at their genitals.
Eighteen of the former scholarship athletes said Murphy’s sports treatments and massages included him touching or nearly touching their genitals, even when he was treating their feet or Achilles tendon, the lawsuit states.
Twelve of the men described both problematic drug tests and sexual abuse during massages or treatments.
No criminal charges against Murphy
Murphy hasn’t been criminally charged. Assistant District Attorney Melanie Shekita, who sat in on Wednesday’s hearing, said she hopes to decide whether to charge him in the coming weeks.
Murphy’s attorney Seth Blum has said his client denies the allegations. There hasn’t been “one scrap of credible evidence that he assaulted anyone,” Blum previously told The News & Observer.
The other defendants in the case are:
- Michael Lipitz, deputy athletics director from 2011 to 2019.
- Stephanie Menio, who took the job of deputy athletics director starting in 2019.
- Lester Clinkscales, who served as a senior associate athletics director from 2012 until 2016.
- Raymond Harrison, senior associate athletics director since 2016.
- Michelle Lee, who was the senior assistant athletics director from 2007 to 2021, when she was promoted to chief of staff.
- Randy Woodson, N.C. State’s chancellor for 14 years until he retired in June 2025, was dismissed from the lawsuit on Monday.
Ignored red flags?
The complaint claims university leaders, including Yow, ignored red flags. Coaches reportedly questioned Murphy’s behavior, describing “grooming” actions and inappropriate drug-testing practices, the court filing says. Staff and players even joked about Murphy’s massages.
Over the years, administrators told Murphy to stay away from the players and find a third-party vendor to do drug tests but he didn’t, the lawsuit states. Meanwhile, Murphy was promoted in 2018, the lawsuit states.
In court documents, university administrators have denied they knew of the alleged abuse and have made multiple arguments on why they should be dismissed from the lawsuit.
None of the plaintiffs nor the defendants were in the courtroom Wednesday for the two-hour hearing on motions to dismiss the lawsuit.
Sexual misconduct ‘unacceptable’
At the outset of the hearing, Alex Hagan, who represents Corrigan, Menio and Lee, said “sexual misconduct of any kind is completely unacceptable” to his clients and the university.
However, Hagan said, there are a number of procedural issues to address before the case moves forward.
Hagan argued that the case’s negligence claims against the administrators shouldn’t move forward in Wake County Superior Court. The claims belong before the Industrial Commission, which hears negligence claims against state employees and agencies. In that court, damages are capped at $1 million and cases are determined by judges not juries.
The men have filed a lawsuit against the university in the Industrial Commission, but the case is on hold until the Wake County case plays out. Their attorneys, Robert Jenkins, Lisa Lanier and Kerry Sutton, argued in court and documents that the men deserve to be heard by a jury.
Three-year statute of limitations
The attorneys for the administrators also argued that the three-year statute of limitations on the civil claims expired in August 2025 but that the most recent lawsuit wasn’t filed until September 2025.
Ben Locke was the first former athlete to file a lawsuit in federal court in August 2022. He was followed by two others. The three federal lawsuits faced numerous challenges, including one that was dismissed months after it was filed. The two others were also dismissed but revived on appeal in 2025.
In September 2025, the plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed the two federal cases and refiled against Murphy and N.C. State administrators in Wake County court.
The plaintiffs argue the statute of limitations doesn’t apply since there was a “systematic concealment” by the university in the case.
Who is responsible?
Hagan also argued that the athletes’ argument that the administrators are responsible because they were negligent in training and supervising Murphy is inappropriate because they didn’t employ Murphy. The university employed Murphy, Hagan said.
Jenkins dismissed that argument in court, saying that for years, the administrators actively recruited young male athletes to come to the school.
“Knowing that when they got there, they would be subjected to the perverted tendencies of an athletic trainer,” Jenkins said.
Judge Brian Collins said at the end of the hearing that he would make a decision after giving the attorneys from both sides time to respond to questions raised in court.
This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 6:32 PM.
