Tim Ballard asks court to strike privileged information from lawsuit, claims it was stolen
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SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Former Operation Underground Railroad (OUR) CEO Tim Ballard has asked Utah’s 3rd Judicial District Court to strike certain information from evidence in lawsuits against him, claiming it was confidential and stolen.
The motion, filed Dec. 20, also asks the court to reveal the identities of the five women who filed suit against Ballard, so that he can properly respond to their complaints. Ballard also requested additional time to respond to an amended version of the original lawsuit filed on Nov. 2.
Ballard faces four separate lawsuits against him for actions taken during his time with OUR, including fraud and sexual misconduct accusations. In the suit in question, the five women accused Ballard of forcing them into the “couple’s ruse” while on undercover investigations into human trafficking.
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Under the couple’s ruse, the plaintiffs claimed Ballard asked them to pose as his wife. To further the ruse, Ballard allegedly coerced the women into sexual activity with him. Ballard has asserted that any such undercover operations included training, and all women who participated in them had given consent.
In last week’s motion, Ballard’s attorneys claim he “should not have to respond” to the suit until he knows the full identity of his accusers and which ones have alleged which accusations.
Ballard’s motion states three plaintiffs have revealed their identities to him, but they refuse to “correlate their anonymized initials with their names, which would improperly require Mr. Ballard to speculate about which identified person correlates to which allegations.” The other two have not revealed their identities.
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Ballard is also accusing his former assistant, Celeste Borys — who has also sued Ballard in a separate complaint — of stealing confidential information from Ballard’s private email. Ballard alleges that Borys’ attorney has refused to return the information and remove it from public filings. Last week’s motion states Ballard anticipates filing further complaints against Borys, the other plaintiffs in her case, and her attorneys.
The motion mentions nine separate exhibits, including correspondence with attorneys, private communications to “priest(s) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” as well as “private and sensitive documents” about high-profile people, including media personalities and Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes.
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Ballard’s motion said Borys had worked for him up until early October 2023, quitting only days before she filed her suit. As such, Borys allegedly had access to Ballard’s email accounts “almost until the day” her suit was filed.
Ballard’s motion claims the material is irrelevant to any of the accusations against him, and they should be taken out of the public records.
Click here to read the motion.