The Celeste Borys lawsuit against Tim Ballard, the founder of Operation Underground Railroad, was dismissed with prejudice by a Utah state judge in July 2025 after the court found that Borys and her attorneys had improperly accessed Ballard’s private email and files to build the case. The dismissal was a sanction for how the evidence was gathered, not a ruling on whether the alleged sexual assaults occurred. A separate federal anti-trafficking lawsuit Borys filed against Ballard is still active.
Who Celeste Borys Is
Borys worked as Tim Ballard’s executive assistant at Operation Underground Railroad (OUR) and frequently traveled internationally with him on the organization’s anti-trafficking operations.1The Salt Lake Tribune. Women Accusing OUR Founder Tim Ballard Speak Out In that role she had what a court later described as “unfettered” access to Ballard’s personal Gmail account and Google Drive.2Tim Ballard. Celeste Borys Termination Order Findings of Fact Conclusions of Law and Order She resigned in September 2023, citing in part Ballard’s “excessive drinking and his maniac personality.”3Fox 13 Now. Lawsuit Dismissed After Judge Says Evidence From Tim Ballard’s Email Cannot Be Used
What Borys Accused Ballard Of
Borys alleged that Ballard “repeatedly and systematically sexually assaulted her” during what OUR called the “couples ruse,” an undercover tactic in which a female employee posed as Ballard’s romantic partner to deceive human traffickers.4People. Lawsuit Against Tim Ballard Dropped, How Ex-Assistant Obtained Evidence She said Ballard took her on a 2022 mission to Ecuador, forced her into a couples massage, and sexually assaulted her in a hotel room.5People. Former Miss Utah and Other Women Accuse Prominent Human Trafficking Advocate of Harassment and Abuse At a November 2023 press conference, she said OUR “turned me over to the traffickers” and that she and other plaintiffs had “never seen a single child rescued on any OUR operations.”1The Salt Lake Tribune. Women Accusing OUR Founder Tim Ballard Speak Out
Ballard has denied every allegation. He called the claims “baseless inventions” and at one point said Borys was “simply upset that she had fallen in love with Mr. Ballard” and that “Mr. Ballard did not feel the same way.”6Roar Assets. Tim Ballard DNA Court Docs
In a separate proceeding, a Utah District Court judge issued a Sexual Violence Protective Order against Ballard on October 3, 2024, finding that he had “committed a sexually violent act against Ms. Borys.”3Fox 13 Now. Lawsuit Dismissed After Judge Says Evidence From Tim Ballard’s Email Cannot Be Used At that hearing, Ballard’s own counsel confirmed that DNA testing by the Utah State Crime Lab found Ballard’s semen on a leather skirt belonging to Borys.7Roar Assets. Sexual Violence Protective Order
The State Lawsuit
Borys filed her state lawsuit on October 10, 2023, in the Third Judicial District Court in Salt Lake County (Case No. 230907663), naming Tim Ballard and OUR as defendants.2Tim Ballard. Celeste Borys Termination Order Findings of Fact Conclusions of Law and Order Her claims were battery, sexual assault, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Her husband, Mike Borys, joined as a co-plaintiff with claims for fraud, conspiracy, and infliction of emotional distress against Ballard and OUR.3Fox 13 Now. Lawsuit Dismissed After Judge Says Evidence From Tim Ballard’s Email Cannot Be Used
In December 2023, OUR filed a countersuit against Celeste and Michael Borys, alleging breach of a nondisclosure agreement, defamation, and illegal access to company computer systems.8The Salt Lake Tribune. Operation Underground Railroad Files Counterclaims
Why the State Case Was Dismissed
The case turned on how Borys gathered her evidence. After resigning in September 2023, she did not log out of Ballard’s personal Gmail and Google Drive accounts and kept real-time access to them.2Tim Ballard. Celeste Borys Termination Order Findings of Fact Conclusions of Law and Order The court found she accessed and searched Ballard’s email and files for hours on at least two occasions, one of them after the complaint had already been filed.4People. Lawsuit Against Tim Ballard Dropped, How Ex-Assistant Obtained Evidence She admitted reading his incoming emails as they arrived. Some of the materials she took were marked attorney-client privileged or work product. She gave the materials to her attorneys, who used them as case exhibits and referenced them in press releases.
Borys testified at an evidentiary hearing that she accessed the files only to “understand what had happened to her.” Judge Todd M. Shaughnessy rejected that explanation, pointing to a declaration she had filed in a related case acknowledging that she searched the files specifically to gather “proof” of her allegations.4People. Lawsuit Against Tim Ballard Dropped, How Ex-Assistant Obtained Evidence
On July 18, 2025, Judge Shaughnessy issued a 58-page ruling dismissing all of Borys’s claims with prejudice as a terminating sanction.9The Salt Lake Tribune. Judge Drops Lawsuit Against Tim Ballard He found the conduct of Borys and her attorneys “intentional or willful” and called it “a deliberate effort to bypass discovery and the requirements of the rules of civil procedure.”4People. Lawsuit Against Tim Ballard Dropped, How Ex-Assistant Obtained Evidence He compared her actions to “using a key to access Mr. Ballard’s office in the dark of night to secretly photocopy documents from locked file drawers.”3Fox 13 Now. Lawsuit Dismissed After Judge Says Evidence From Tim Ballard’s Email Cannot Be Used
The judge acknowledged that Ballard had been “extremely careless” in failing to change his passwords after Borys left, but ruled that his negligence “is not the same as giving Borys permission” to access the accounts. He also observed that Borys and her legal team “probably would have been able to obtain most of the evidence through discovery anyway” had they followed standard procedures. In one of the ruling’s most-quoted passages, he wrote that the court “lawfully cannot excuse Ms. Borys’s conduct even if the court assumes that she is a victim and Mr. Ballard is a predator.” He pointed to the attorneys’ “refusal to accept any accountability or responsibility” as an additional reason the dismissal was made permanent.
What Is Still Active
The dismissal ended the state case but not Borys’s legal pursuit of Ballard. She is a named plaintiff in a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah (Case No. 2:24-cv-00794-RJS-JCB) before Judge Robert J. Shelby, which also names the company Aerial Recovery and alleges violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.10GovInfo. Celeste Borys et al. v. Timothy Ballard et al. As of December 2025, the court was addressing a Second Amended Complaint, with Ballard’s deadline to respond set for January 12, 2026. Her attorneys say she intends to press forward with the federal case.11MinistryWatch. State Lawsuit Against Anti-Trafficking Figure Tim Ballard Dismissed
Her attorneys were also reported to be “contemplating an appeal” of the state dismissal.3Fox 13 Now. Lawsuit Dismissed After Judge Says Evidence From Tim Ballard’s Email Cannot Be Used
Ballard has gone on the offensive as well. In October 2024, he filed a defamation lawsuit in Utah’s 4th District Court naming Borys and five other accusers: Sashaleigha Hightower, Mary Hall, Krista Kacey, Bree Righter, and Kira Lynch.12East Idaho News. Operation Underground Railroad Founder Sues 6 Additional Women for Defamation Against Borys specifically, he also brought claims under the Utah Computer Abuse and Data Recovery Act and the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for the unauthorized access to his files. That case remains pending.13The Salt Lake Tribune. Tim Ballard Following Sex Assault Allegations
Criminal Investigations
Multiple police agencies investigated allegations against Ballard. In November 2023, the Lindon Police Department confirmed it was investigating a report by Borys alleging a 2023 sexual assault.13The Salt Lake Tribune. Tim Ballard Following Sex Assault Allegations Attorneys for the accusers said police reports were filed with at least eight agencies nationwide.14Fox 13 Now. Salt Lake County Declines to File Criminal Charges Against Tim Ballard
Neither of the two Utah prosecutors who reviewed the evidence has brought charges. The Utah County attorney declined to file criminal charges on Borys’s specific allegation. In November 2025, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office also declined, with District Attorney Sim Gill citing “insufficient admissible evidence” to meet the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Gill said the decision did not mean the women’s accounts were “disbelieved or diminished” and that his office remained “ready to revisit this matter if additional evidence becomes available.”15ABC4. Salt Lake County DA’s Office Declines to File Charges Against Tim Ballard No criminal charges have been filed against Ballard in any jurisdiction.