Federal Court Removes Plaintiff From Ballard Sexual Misconduct Case

Improper evidence gathering results in dismissal of one of six accusers.

A federal court has dismissed Celeste Borys,Tim Ballard’s former assistant, from a lawsuit she filed against him, according to Courthouse News Service.

Tim Ballard during a television interview in July 2023. (Video screen grab)

Borys and five other women sued Ballard, founder of Operation Underground Railroad, in federal court, alleging sexually inappropriate conduct and violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003.

Borys had previously filed a similar lawsuit in Utah state court in October 2023.

The state lawsuit claimed Ballard promoted a technique called the “couples ruse,” which required women who worked for OUR to pose as his wife and engage in sexual contact to ensnare human traffickers. In some cases, he flew workers to be with him to develop the “sexual chemistry” necessary for the ruse.

The state court dismissed Bory’s case because of how evidence was obtained.

As Ballard’s executive assistant, Borys had access to some of his email and electronic document accounts, which she then accessed after she left her job.

Utah Third District Judge Todd Shaughnessy found that Ballard was “extremely careless” and “negligent” for failing to change his password, but determined his negligence did not constitute permission for Borys to access his accounts.

“The court lawfully cannot excuse Ms. Borys’s conduct even if the court assumes that she is a victim and Mr. Ballard is a predator,” Shaughnessy wrote.

As a sanction for Borys’ conduct of her attorneys actions, the state court dismissed her case in July 2025.

Before the state court dismissal, Borys and five other women filed the federal lawsuit in October 2024, also alleging the “couples ruse.”

Citing the similarities between the lawsuits, Ballard moved to dismiss Borys and the other plaintiffs’ claims, citing her improper access to evidence using a password she maintained even after employment ended.

U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby agreed with Ballard and affirmed the prior state court sanction, dismissing Borys from the lawsuit. He allowed the other plaintiffs’ claims to proceed.

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Borys had sought lesser sanctions, such as excluding the improperly obtained evidence.

“[E]xclusion would not account for the fact that Borys and her attorneys now possess knowledge of the content of the materials improperly accessed and retrieved,” Shelby wrote. “Further, excluding the evidence does not address the harms caused by the documents having already been made public.”

Shelby also considered monetary sanctions against Borys’s attorneys but concluded they would not directly address her culpability in helping to gather the evidence improperly.

“[A]ny sanction short of dismissal would effectively enable Borys to avoid the consequence imposed by the state court for her misconduct merely because she filed a second lawsuit after the fact in federal court,” Shelby wrote. “Accordingly, the court concludes that only terminating sanctions are sufficient here.”

Operation Underground Railroad is now Our Rescue, and Tim Ballard is no longer associated with the anti-trafficking organization.

In the MinistryWatch database, Our Rescue holds a 1-Star Financial Efficiency Rating, a C Transparency Grade, and a Donor Confidence Score of 51, indicating donors should exercise caution before giving.

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