The Buffalo Payments’ rookie cornerback Maxwell Hairston, chosen twenty seventh general within the 2025 NFL Draft, is going through a civil lawsuit alleging sexual assault associated to an incident in March 2021 on the College of Kentucky.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court docket in Kentucky on July 1, 2025, alleges that Hairston entered the sufferer’s dorm room uninvited and engaged in non-consensual sexual exercise. The accuser, Rebecca Hendryx, claims Hairston ignored her repeated refusals and “forcefully eliminated” her clothes earlier than the alleged assault. The civil swimsuit comes regardless of no prison prices ever being filed, and Hairston having been beforehand cleared via investigations by each college authorities and native police.
However regardless of the authorized improvement, Payments common supervisor Brandon Beane has publicly defended Hairston.
Beane expressed his frustration over the character of civil proceedings, saying:
“It’s irritating as a result of within the authorized world you’ll be able to’t sit there and say issues forwards and backwards, you’ve obtained to let it go, however this occurred to this younger man over 4 years in the past. He gave up his cellphone to show; he took a polygraph take a look at. This child didn’t run from it; he answered each single factor. Individuals could make accusations and do issues, and I do not know what the agenda is there, however I can let you know each stone we turned over, each door we seemed behind, it is a superb younger man.”
Beane continued, “I believe we have to keep in mind on the earth, typically these guys — I’m not going to get into it — however we see these accusations, typically these guys will be victims, too. They make some huge cash. And I simply need to be sure that — not often do folks defend them. And that’s laborious for me to see typically as a result of I’ve seen it. We had it right here with a participant a couple of years in the past, that’s not right here, that was wrongly accused. And it’s irritating and everybody ought to … anybody that’s met Maxwell Hairston genuinely is aware of what an amazing younger man he’s.”
Hairston, who was 17 years outdated on the time of the alleged incident, has persistently maintained his innocence.
Talking from Payments coaching camp at St. John Fisher College, Hairston acknowledged:
“It’s been one thing I’ve been coping with since I used to be 17. It’s been 4 years now. I went via this complete course of with the police. They went via an intensive investigation, and I used to be exonerated from that. The College of Kentucky did an intensive investigation. I used to be exonerated from that as effectively. I volunteered to do a number of polygraphs as a result of I used to be decided to get my fact on the market, as a result of I’ve nothing to cover. I used to be an open e book. I’ve two sisters that I like dearly, and I respect all females.”
Nonetheless, Hairston stays lively in coaching camp and is projected to compete for a beginning function in Buffalo’s secondary alongside Christian Benford. The Payments, trying to strengthen their protection after offseason departures, view Hairston as a top-tier addition primarily based on his school efficiency.