Former NFL player intentionally infected woman with incurable STD, lawsuit says
A former wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills is accused of intentionally infecting a woman, and others, with an incurable STD, according to a new lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, the woman says Eric Moulds kept quiet about having herpes during their monthslong romantic relationship in 2023.
After they exchanged messages over Instagram in January 2023, Moulds offered her “an all-expenses paid trip” and flew her out to see him in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to a complaint filed Dec. 10 in New York State Superior Court.
They began a sexual relationship during this trip, the complaint says.
Moulds, as a Buffalo Bills player from 1996 to 2005, played in the NFL’s Pro Bowl three times and has a football training facility in Charlotte, according to the Buffalo News, which first reported on the lawsuit.
According to the complaint, the woman continued to visit Moulds, who paid for her flights, until November 2023, which was the last time they were intimate and had unprotected sex.
Moulds never told her that he had herpes, the complaint says.
Instead, his pregnant fiancée did when she contacted the woman in December 2023 and suggested that she get tested for STDs “because she, along with other women whom (Moulds) had relationships with, had been transmitted diseases by him,” according to the complaint.
The woman, who didn’t know Moulds had been in a relationship with his fiancée for eight years, tested positive for herpes simplex virus type 2 that month, the complaint says.
The woman, of Erie County, New York, is suing Moulds, who lives in Rock Hill, South Carolina, on claims of negligence and for purposefully giving her an STD.
Moulds hasn’t been officially served with the lawsuit as of Dec. 12, but is aware of it, according to his attorney Frank LoTempio III.
“We are in the process of preparing a response and possibly a motion to dismiss,” LoTempio told McClatchy News via email on Dec. 12. “We will be fully defending this action against him.”
Tried ‘to buy her silence’
According to the lawsuit, Moulds first reached out to the woman over Instagram in 2018 and they would occasionally message each other before reconnecting over the social media platform in January 2023.
After her herpes diagnosis, the complaint says the woman learned Moulds “also engaged with multiple women besides (her) via social media.”
He’s accused of targeting “single mothers who were Buffalo Bills fans living in Western New York.”
According to the complaint, Moulds used his “celebrity status” as an NFL star to meet women online and initiate sexual conversations before later offering “all-expenses-paid invitations to see him in person to convert the online relationship into (an) intimate sexual relationship.”
The woman isn’t the first to similarly sue Moulds, the complaint says.
Moulds is accused of giving other women herpes and paying them to drop lawsuits they filed against him, according to the complaint, which says he had them sign non-disclosure agreements.
The woman suing him now says she hadn’t been intimate with anyone else throughout her relationship with Moulds.
“In the wake of another potential lawsuit, (Moulds) offered money in an attempt to buy her silence,” the complaint says.
The woman seeks an unspecified amount in damages with her lawsuit.
The herpes simplex virus 2 can lead to recurring “painful blisters or ulcers” in the genital area, according to the World Health Organization. Though incurable, the disease’s symptoms can be treated.
Most people who have herpes don’t experience symptoms or only have mild symptoms, the WHO says online.
“(Moulds’) conduct was outrageous and extreme as it put his own sexual desires over (the woman’s) permanent health,” the complaint says.
This story was originally published December 12, 2024 at 3:46 PM with the headline "Former NFL player intentionally infected woman with incurable STD, lawsuit says."
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