On Wednesday, July 2, 2025, an Ohio woman filed a lawsuit alleging that Buffalo Bills first-round pick Maxwell Hairston sexually assaulted her in 2021.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, the lawsuit claims that Hairston unexpectedly visited her dorm room at the University of Kentucky on March 24, 2021. When Hairston arrived, the lawsuit alleges he told the Ohio woman that he wanted to “hang out,” but the woman said she was going to bed and walked away from the door. However, the lawsuit alleges Hairston followed her into the bedroom, forced himself onto her, and sexually assaulted her.
“Our client showed remarkable strength in coming forward, and we are proud to stand with her in pursuit of accountability and justice,” attorney Peter Flowers said. “No one – regardless of their status or athletic success – is above the law.“
Shortly after the Buffalo Bills selected Hairston with the 30th overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, General Manager Brandon Beane was asked about the accusation. Beane, referring to the matter as “the Title IX thing,” said it was “fully investigated by the school” and Flowers “even volunteered to do a polygraph and had notes.”
“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,” Beane said. “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.”
