Tim Ballard is suing sexual assault accuser for defamation

A year after seven women accused Tim Ballard of rape and sexual assault, the Operation Underground Railroad founder hit back this week, filing a lawsuit claiming the allegations were false and defamatory and demanding compensation for his reputation damage inflicted.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, Ballard’s lawyers allege that their client “has fallen victim to a brutal barrage of false sexual assault allegations” concocted to undermine his efforts to stop child sex trafficking.

“Unfortunately, it appears that there are wealthy and powerful people who are connected to this dark and evil underworld and do not want to be exposed,” the lawsuit says.

Following the release of the film “Sound of Freedom,” which was loosely based on Ballrd’s origins in the fight against human trafficking, and rumors of his plans to run for the U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by Senator Mitt Romney, it is said in the lawsuit: “Mr. Ballard’s team received word that millions of dollars had been spent to bring down Mr. Ballard.”

The defamation lawsuit names six women – Celeste Borys, Sashaleigha Hightower, Mary Hall, Krista Kacey, Bree Righter and Kira Lynch – who accuse Ballard of sexual misconduct while posing as his partner while working for alleged undercover operations to combat… Sex trained or carried out by human trafficking cartels.

Ballard filed another defamation lawsuit in September by another accuser, former Miss Utah Amy Morgan Davis, who had been an anonymous plaintiff in the personal injury lawsuit against Ballard but was recently named in a New York Times article.

Suzette Rasmussen, one of the lawyers representing the women, said Ballard’s lawsuit wasn’t a complete surprise.

“It was a bit anticipated as this is the same thing [modus operandi] “That’s what he’s been doing for the last 10 years – threatening to sue people if they speak out against him,” she said. “It’s really outrageous and absurd for him to do this to the victims, but it just shows his desperation.”

Ballard’s lawyers maintain that all the allegations against him are false and that in many cases the women are retaliating because they fell in love with him and he rebuffed their advances.

Rasmussen said Ballard’s lawyers cherry-picked text messages and conversations with other people to piece together a false narrative

Borys, who had been Ballard’s executive assistant, is also accused in the lawsuit of illegally accessing, using and publishing Ballard’s computer files as part of the litigation against him, damaging his reputation and financial interests.

Last week, a court commissioner in Utah approved a sexual violence protective order, finding based on the preponderance of the evidence that Ballard had committed sexual violence against Borys and ordering him not to contact Borys and to stay at least 250 feet away from her at all times.

The women filed several lawsuits against Ballard about a year ago. Their complaints followed a rare rebuke from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, condemning Ballard’s “morally unacceptable” behavior and distancing himself from the church and one of its leaders – Elder Russell Ballard – no relation to OUR founder Tim Ballard .

Ballard resigned from the anti-human trafficking organization this summer after the board conducted an investigation into alleged misconduct. According to the organization’s most recent tax filing, OUR paid Ballard $600,000 in 2023, despite his ouster in June of that year.

This story may be updated.