The Detroit Pistons fired assistant GM Rob Murphy amid sexual assault allegations. What do we know?
Though the franchise appears to have taken swift action, the allegations against the former assistant GM do leave one to wonder why that didn’t happen sooner.
* Please be advised that this article contains descriptions of alleged sexual assault.*
The specter of inappropriate conduct toward female employees has loomed large over American professional sports in recent times and with recent reports laying bare the sinister actions of the Pistons exec, it appears that sadly continues to be the case.
Pistons fire Rob Murphy amid sexual assault allegations
According to reports on Thursday, the Detroit Pistons fired assistant general manager, Rob Murphy, following an investigation into allegations of inappropriate conduct toward a former employee. To be clear, Murphy had in fact been placed on leave back in October following the initiation of an external investigation. In a statement that has since been released, the Pistons indicated that the investigation had uncovered enough evidence to warrant Murphy’s termination.
“Rob Murphy no longer works for the Detroit Pistons or Motor City Cruise, in any capacity,” read the Pistons’ statement. “Mr. Murphy was recently terminated for violation of company policy and the terms of his employment agreement. The facts that gave rise to his termination surfaced during a review, assisted by a national law firm, of allegations made by a former employee. Mr. Murphy was placed on leave immediately after the allegations were received and did not return to the workplace prior to his termination. Because this is a personnel matter, no further details will be forthcoming at this time.”
What do we know about the case against Rob Murphy?
As per reports, just one day after Murphy’s dismissal was announced an attorney representing Murphy’s former executive assistant, DeJanai Raska, identified her as the accuser and made it clear that she intends to file a lawsuit against Murphy and the Pistons for abuse and harassment. Further to that declaration, the lawyer also claimed that despite the investigation being completed in December of last year, Murphy was retained on paid leave until the franchise was advised that there was a pending lawsuit. For his part, Murphy joined the Pistons in 2021 after he was hired as president and general manager of the G League’s Motor City Cruise, before being promoted twice in just over a year.
What is Rob Murphy accused of?
In a candid interview which was published on Thursday, Raska recounted her push to land a job in basketball. Indeed, not only did the single mother leave two jobs before doing so, but she took “a huge pay cut” as well. Sadly, it wasn’t long before she found herself “turned into a personal assistant nanny” for Murphy and his son, rather than being tasked with the activities described in the job description. Raska then went on to describe how Murphy began to verbally harass her as well as “grooming” her with inappropriate conversations, before advising her that she shouldn’t approach HR. The former employee also went on to describe how Murphy “Isolated and manipulated” her such that he in effect held the key to her employment.
Raska then detailed the sexual assault which she alleged Murphy perpetrated against her on two occasions. The first of those was following his return from a scouting trip while she stayed the night at his house to watch his son:
“The next morning, he called both his son and I in his room to talk. We were just talking, ‘How was school? What happened?’ And then in the midst of the conversation, he excuses [his son] out of the room and he’s like, ‘Hey, I need to talk to DJ for a sec.’ ...So we’re in the room at this point, and at this point he’s standing in front of me ... he then got in front of me and pushed me down on his bed and tried to engage in the beginning of some kind of sexual activity. So I’m literally trying to push my body up, because he’s on top of me. I’m like ‘Hey Rob, I don’t want to do this,’ and he then — this is disgusting to say, but I thought of anything and I’m like, ‘You know I’m on my period,’ and [he] was like ‘DJ, it’s just a little blood, we’re adults, you need to get out of your head.’ When he said that, even right now, it makes me want to regurgitate. Saying that, it gave me enough to push up and sit at the edge of the bed. As I’m sitting at the edge of the bed, he then gets up and he’s pacing his room now and he’s like, ‘You just think too much, you know you just need to let stuff happen. This isn’t a big deal, sex is sex.’”
With no further details at this time, it remains unclear as to what happens next, but what is clear is that Rob Murphy’s time with the Detroit Pistons is over and rightly so.