Authorities confirmed the arrest of former NC State sports medicine director Robert Michael Murphy on Wednesday evening. A grand jury indicted Murphy last week on multiple felony and misdemeanor counts involving the sexual abuse of male athletes he had treated.

Murphy was taken into custody in Ocala, Florida, where he currently resides. The Marion County sheriff's office listed him as having been booked shortly after 9 p.m. ET Wednesday, and no bail was posted.

The full list of charges on Murphy's inmate file includes 23 counts of sexual battery and nine counts of felony sexual contact. A photograph shows Murphy wearing orange and white inmate clothing.

Murphy is charged under a 2019 North Carolina law that made abuse under the guise of medical treatment a felony. His North Carolina arrest warrant identified him as an "out-of-state fugitive."

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The grand jury returned sealed indictments Sept. 14, but the charges remained secret until Murphy could be located. Courts often seal indictments to provide authorities with time to arrest suspects or prevent them from fleeing the jurisdiction.

Parts of the sealed file were inadvertently posted to the Wake County, North Carolina, court website last week and quickly removed. The material was later reposted and removed again, allowing ESPN to confirm at least two felony indictments for sexual penetration or contact under the guise of medical treatment and four other indictments for sexual battery.

Wake County District Attorney Lorin Freeman addressed the case in a statement Thursday. "We appreciate the hard work of law enforcement and the courage of the victims in this case. We are intent on seeking justice," Freeman said.

The allegations against Murphy first surfaced in 2022 after former men's soccer player Ben Locke filed a criminal complaint with campus police, according to a police report obtained by ESPN. Locke has since spoken publicly about his allegations.

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Locke said the abuse began in 2015 after he was injured as a 17 year old freshman. Thirty one other men joined a civil lawsuit against Murphy and eight university officials, while two more former athletes said they planned to join the case.

The lawsuit claims athletes were abused under the guise of medical treatment or subjected to overly intrusive drug tests. It also contends administrators failed to stop the abuse despite receiving warnings about Murphy's behavior as early as 2012, when the former athletic trainer started at the school.

Kerry Sutton, a lawyer representing the former NC State athletes, said the criminal case supports their allegations. Sutton said the charges "validate Ben Locke and 33 other former Wolfpack athletes and bolster their claims of being sexually abused at NCSU."

A Wake County judge dismissed the lawsuit in June for procedural reasons, ruling that North Carolina law requires civil claims against state institutions to be filed with the state's Industrial Commission. The judge also dismissed the claims against Murphy after determining that the statute of limitations had expired.

The men have appealed the dismissal. Murphy's attorney did not immediately respond to an ESPN request for comment following his arrest.

NC State opened a Title IX investigation in 2022 that focused exclusively on Locke's allegations. According to redacted documents obtained by ESPN, the investigation found that Murphy's conduct while treating Locke for sports injuries was "unwelcome and of a sexual nature," "pervasive" and "sufficiently severe."

Using a preponderance of the evidence standard, the investigation determined that Murphy made repeated nonconsensual contact of a sexual nature with Locke's genitals. The documents said the contact occurred with Murphy's bare hands or fingers during therapeutic massage sessions.

Murphy resigned from his position at NC State in spring 2022 before the Title IX investigation was completed. University officials did not immediately respond to an ESPN request for comment Wednesday.

Jared Hammett, a Raleigh based attorney representing Murphy, issued a statement to The Associated Press in June after the civil suit was dismissed. He described Murphy as "someone who dedicated his life to working with athletes" and referred to a "rush to judgment" that can affect "real people's lives."

Hammett also rejected the allegations in that June statement. "The truth is nothing happened but a man's career being ruined for money," he said.

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