Salt Lake City declines to charge anti-child-trafficking activist with sexual assault | Utah
A Salt Lake City-based district attorney is declining to file charges against the founder of an anti-child trafficking organization — made famous by the 2023 film Sound of Freedom — following sexual assault claims filed by several women in lawsuits.
Sim Gill, the district attorney, issued a statement Friday saying there was “insufficient admissible evidence” and his office declined to file charges against Tim Ballard in connection with the allegations.
“This does not mean that we disbelieve or minimize a survivor’s story, but rather that the law requires evidence strong enough to remove any reasonable doubt for a jury,” Gill said in the release.
In two lawsuits, women accused Ballard of exploiting her position as founder of Operation Underground Railroad and their desire to help fight child trafficking to abuse them.
One lawsuit was dismissed and one appeal is pending, with another still pending, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
“Tim Ballard is innocent, so the fact that there won’t be any charges makes perfect sense,” said Mark Eisenhut, Ballard’s attorney. “We hope that the authorities will seriously consider filing charges against false accusers. »
Ballard resigned from Operation Underground Railroad amid sexual assault allegations.
In October 2023, five Utah residents filed a lawsuit alleging that Tim Ballard sexually assaulted and emotionally abused women employed to assist in his organization’s efforts to rescue victims of sex trafficking.
The Ballard Name Trial; Operation Underground Railroad, the organization he led until he resigned in August over similar complaints; and its board members as defendants.
“Defendant Ballard intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly committed battery and sexual assault on Plaintiffs because all of the sexual touching was done as part of the Couples’ Ruse in order to help save the trafficked children and women,” the lawsuit alleges.
The complaint came after Vice News reported allegations of sexual and business misconduct, as well as a reprimand from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that accused Ballard of trying to exploit his friendship with a senior apostle of the Church for “personal advantage and activity considered morally unacceptable.”
According to the report, Ballard would invite female staff and volunteers to accompany him on overseas missions as his wife, then force them to share his bed or shower together by telling them it was necessary to deceive the traffickers.
One of the women Vice spoke with said she had received photographs of Ballard in only underwear, showing a number of fake tattoos. Another woman was reportedly asked “how far she was willing to go” to save enslaved children.
Ballard, who investigated child sex trafficking as a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) special agent, was played in Sound of Freedom by actor Jim Caviezel, whose own parroting of QAnon theories earned condemnation from the film’s director, Alejandro Monteverde.
Although a surprise summer box office hit, Sound of Freedom has been variously described as “QAnon-adjacent” and “Maga-friendly” by critics, using the “Make America Great Again” slogan favored by Donald Trump supporters.
Associated Press contributed to this report
