- A federal judge dismissed Celeste Borys from a lawsuit against anti-human trafficking activist Tim Ballard.
- Judge Robert Shelby cited improper evidence retrieval from Ballard's online accounts.
- Five other women's claims against Ballard remain ongoing in the lawsuit; Borys' attorneys asked the court to reconsider.
SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge dismissed claims from one of several women who had sued anti-human trafficking activist Tim Ballard, saying some pieces of evidence were "wrongfully retrieved" from Ballard's online accounts.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Shelby's June 29 ruling came close to a year after a state court dismissed a case brought by the same woman, Celeste Borys. That case was dismissed last July after a state judge found Borys had improperly accessed internal documents that were later used as evidence in the case.
Shelby ruled to dismiss Borys from the case on similar grounds, saying the improper access to documents "prejudiced Ballard" and "deprived (him) of the important rights and protections afforded litigants by the formal discovery process. Five other women are still included in the lawsuit.
Borys has appealed last year's state court decision, and her attorneys asked the federal court to reconsider the recent ruling last week.
Borys was one of several women who accused Ballard of inappropriate conduct in lawsuits beginning in 2023. She worked as an executive assistant to Ballard for the organization he founded, Operation Underground Railroad (now OUR Rescue), and later at the Spear Fund. Borys has claimed Ballard manipulated her into sexual contact through a ruse meant to fool sex traffickers.
Ballard has repeatedly denied those claims, and later in 2023, alleged that Borys based her claims on documents she obtained illegally from his email and online accounts, which she had access to as his assistant. That evidence has been used in separate cases brought by different accusers against Ballard.
Alan Mortensen, an attorney representing Borys, said the recent federal court ruling was "only a procedural sanctions issue related to the timing that documents were accessed by Ms. Borys and does not determine whether the sexual misconduct allegations against Ballard are true or whether any acts of sexual violence occurred."
Ballard's attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Judge Shelby dismissed Borys' claims with prejudice but declined to dismiss the claims of five other women involved in the lawsuit. Those claims are all ongoing.
