Buffalo Bills first round draft pick Maxwell Hairston was accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in Kentucky.
The woman who filed the lawsuit claims Hairston assaulted her after she refused his sexual advances while they were both students at the University of Kentucky in 2021.
Hairston has not publicly responded to the suit. Bills leaders said they investigated an allegation of sexual assault against Hairston before selecting him with the 30th overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft in April.
“I would say this is a heck of a young man, every person you ask,” the team’s general manager, Brandon Beane, said at the time. “That’s unfortunate when things like that are attached to someone’s name and in this case, it doesn’t seem to be anything there.”
According to the lawsuit, Hairston met the woman in March 2021. On March 24, he showed up uninvited to her dorm room late at night, entered the room over the woman’s protests and followed her to the bedroom, the suit claims.
After that, Hairston allegedly pulled down the woman’s pants and sexually assaulted her. The woman says she reported the assault to local law enforcement within hours and took a sexual assault exam.
No criminal charges were filed against Hairston in the case. The suit claims officers took a used condom and the woman’s clothes from the scene.
The woman says she transferred from Kentucky later that year. Hairston went on to be a three-year star as a defensive back on the school’s football team.
