Five Utah residents have filed a lawsuit alleging that Tim Ballard, the former head of an anti-sex trafficking group, sexually assaulted and emotionally abused women employed to take part in the organization’s efforts to rescue victims of sex trafficking.
The lawsuit, filed in Salt Lake County, Utah, names Ballard, Operation Underground Railroad, the organization he headed until he stepped down in August over similar claims, as well as its board members, as defendants.
“Defendant Ballard, intentionally, knowingly or recklessly, committed battery and sexual assault of Plaintiffs, as all sexual touching was done under the Couples Ruse in order to help save trafficked children and women,” the lawsuit alleges.
The complaint comes after Vice News reported allegations of sexual and business malfeasance, a rebuke by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that accused Ballard of trying to exploit his friendship with a senior church apostle for “personal advantage and activity regarded as morally unacceptable”.
Ballard has emerged as something of a conservative hero after the release of The Sound of Freedom, an anti-sex trafficking thriller based on his experiences that has taken more than $100m at the box office.
The suit claims Ballard allegedly abused five women during what he called the “couples ruse”, inviting women to pose as his “wife” to fool traffickers during rescue missions and then allegedly coercing them into sharing a bed or showering together.
“Ballard claims that the couples ruse was an undercover tool to prevent detection by pedophiles when Ballard would not engage in sexual touching of the trafficked women offered up to him in strip clubs and massage parlors across the world,” the lawsuit states.
The 30-page lawsuit continues: “Ballard soon began abusing the couples ruse and eventually used the ruse as a tool for sexual grooming” and used his relationships to coerce the women “into sexual contact”.
Separately, Suzette Rasmussen, an attorney for the women, told Deseret News that Ballard had subjected several women to “sexual harassment, spiritual manipulation, grooming, and sexual misconduct” during their involvement with the anti-trafficking organization.
In some instances, the lawsuit claims, Ballard flew women who would be posing as his wife or partner to Utah to hone an impression of sexual chemistry and ask them to perform lap dances, take part in couples massages, engage in various sexual acts short of penetration, and encourage the women to get Brazilian waxes.
He would also visit Salt Lake valley strip clubs, the lawsuit alleges, and pay for lap dances, drink alcohol and take pills – all paid for using Operation Underground Railroad (OUR) funds. Ballard is alleged to have reaped $14m for activities with the not-for-profit groups named in the suit.
In a statement, the organization said it “categorically denies the allegations as they relate to OUR”.
The suit also alleges that Ballard probed the women’s commitment to the Mormon church, as all of Ballard’s accusers are Mormon. Ballard allegedly asked them: “Is there anything you wouldn’t do to save a child?” It also claims that Ballard took ketamine and issued prophesies dictated from the Mormon prophet Nephi that he would become a US senator, US president and, ultimately, a Mormon prophet who would be able to usher in the second coming of Jesus Christ.
The Vice report, denunciation by his church, and subsequent legal action has severely challenged Ballard’s standing. He was once appointed to a post on a public-private anti-trafficking council in the Trump administration, counted the former president as a friend, and hosted Trump on his podcast. Ballard has also said he is weighing a run for Mitt Romney’s soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat.
On Tuesday, Ballard responded to the allegations in a statement to Deseret News.
“Mr Ballard vehemently denies the allegations brought by these unnamed women,” the statement said. “He looks forward to vindicating his name in the courts where evidence, and not unsubstantiated accusations in the media, decides the outcome.”
The lawsuit also brings into question Ballard’s relationship with the Utah attorney general, Sean Reyes. Reyes participated in a rescue operation with the group, the suit alleges, and backed Ballard for a Senate run.
The lawsuit claims that “Reyes has repeatedly vouched for OUR and Tim Ballard” and claims that “complaints and criminal investigations were pouring into his office regarding the improprieties of OUR and Ballard.”
In a statement on Monday, the attorney general said his office had not received criminal complaints or requests for investigation alleged in the lawsuit.
“I am shocked and deeply saddened by these allegations, but these women must be heard to ensure all credible evidence can be presented,” Reyes said. “Such evidence should be appropriately considered by any tribunal that can weigh them against contrary evidence or defenses of the accused.”
Ballard previously denied that the “couples ruse” was a front for sexual contact with women involved in the anti-trafficking stings. After the allegations first surfaced, he released a statement through the Spear fund – which is named in the lawsuit – that “the latest tabloid-driven sexual allegations are false”.
“They are baseless inventions designed to destroy me and the movement we have built to end the trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable children,” the statement added.
The lawsuit also claims that Ballard used the anti-trafficking organization to commit fraud. “OUR was making staggering profits as Ballard opened ‘for profit’ companies, defendants, which were alter-egos of OUR and Ballard and that allowed Ballard to line his pockets with the widow’s mite.”
But the allegations against the sex-trafficking activist also threatens to draw in the Mormon church directly. The lawsuit alleges that Ballard claims that church president M Russell Ballard (the two are not related) “had given Ballard permission to do the couples ruse, as long as there is no sexual intercourse or kissing on the lips, and had given him a special priesthood blessing as such.”
But in the lawsuit, the women said it was their “reasonable belief and inquiry” that when the church leaders learned of Ballard’s couples ruse and how it was being used, they moved to excommunicate him. The church has not confirmed that Ballard’s membership, the Mormon term for excommunication, has been withdrawn.
