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Buffalo Bills cornerback Maxwell Hairston is being sued by a woman who claims he sexually assaulted her in 2021 when he was an early enrollee at Kentucky.
Hairston, 21, was the Bills’ first-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft in April, taken No 30 overall.
The lawsuit was filed in the US district court for the eastern district of Kentucky. The unidentified woman also accuses Hairston of intentional infliction of emotional distress. She is seeking a jury trial and compensatory damages.
According to the filing, which was reviewed by USA Today, the woman alleges that Hairston unexpectedly showed up at her dorm room on 24 March 2021. He told her he wanted to “hang out” with her, and the woman said she was tired and didn’t want a visitor. She said she was going to bed and walked away from the door.
Per USA Today, the woman claims in the lawsuit that Hairston followed her into her bedroom, then forced himself upon her and sexually assaulted her after she rejected his requests to have sex.
“Our client showed remarkable strength in coming forward, and we are proud to stand with her in pursuit of accountability and justice,” said Peter Flowers, one of the women’s attorneys, according to the report. “No one – regardless of their status or athletic success – is above the law.“
Before the draft, the Bills were aware of the allegations made by the woman, who had filed a report with the university.
“He’s an impeccable kid. We did a lot of research,” general manager Brandon Beane said the day after the draft. “I think all teams were aware of the Title IX thing. That was fully investigated by the school. He even volunteered to do a polygraph and had notes. It was one of those where there was zero information saying that this actually happened, to what the accusation was.
“You can’t just take someone’s account and think that’s the truth. But yes, we fully investigated that. If there was anything to that, he wouldn’t have been invited to the combine. … Every person you talk to at Kentucky, teammates, staff there, plus what we’ve done, I would say this is a heck of a young man, every person you ask. That’s unfortunate when things like that are attached to someone’s name; in this case, it doesn’t seem to be anything there.”
