OUR Founder Tim Ballard Sues for Defamation
Ballard claims accusations were unleashed to tear down his reputation.
Tim Ballard, the founder of Operation Underground Railroad and subject of the anti-trafficking movie “Sound of Freedom” has filed a defamation lawsuit against six women who accused him of sexual misconduct and assault.
In his lawsuit, Ballard, who is married with nine children, calls the women’s accusations a “vicious onslaught of false allegations.”
In the months following the success of “Sound of Freedom,” Ballard says many well-known people in Utah began to call for Ballard to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Mitt Romney. He claims that “millions of dollars” and “a whirlwind of accusations” were unleashed to tear his reputation down.
Several women filed suit against Ballard in October 2023, accusing him of sexual assault and claiming he used psychological and spiritual manipulation to coerce them into sexual contact.
Ballard claims he waited for nearly a year for his accusers to “withdraw their false claims” and now “reluctantly” brings the lawsuit.
He describes engaging in a “couples ruse” with undercover women operatives to maintain the appearance that they belong in the trafficking world. “For example, when a prostitute expects that the operative would engage in intercourse, the female ruse partner jumps in with jealousy, or a desire herself to engage in relations with the operative, which pushes the prostitute out of the picture.”
Ballard says he was never willing to engage in deviant sexual behavior with any traffickers or their victims, but that he used the couples ruse successfully to infiltrate trafficking rings.
The lawsuit then goes on to address each of the women’s allegations against him.
For example, regarding his former executive assistant Celeste Borys, Ballard cites statements he claims Borys made indicating her romantic attraction to Ballard that he did not reciprocate.
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The court document exhibits include examples of communications such as emails and text messages that are intended to discredit the women’s claims.
He claims that her statement that she “was molested and sexually assaulted by Tim in four different states five different countries in the span of 10 months” is false and defamatory.
The lawsuit includes claims of defamation against five of the women.
Ballard also asserts a claim against Borys for violating the Utah Computer Crimes Act and the civil Computer Abuse and Data Recovery Act when she accessed and published information from Ballard’s computer without permission.
Ballard is no longer with Operation Underground Railroad. He left the organization before “Sound of Freedom” was released, and moved his anti-trafficking efforts to the SPEAR Fund.
According to its most recent IRS Form 990, the SPEAR Fund had about $1.25 million in revenue and $1.39 million in expenses, meaning it operated at a deficit of nearly $150,000.
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