SALT LAKE CITY — Tim Ballard, the former CEO of Operation Underground Railroad, says some of the evidence being used against him in a sexual misconduct lawsuit was “stolen” by his executive assistant Celeste Borys.
He’s now trying to convince a judge to not let the evidence be used against him.
According to a recent court filing, Ballard provided the username and password for his email address to Borys. He says he only authorized Borys to access the emails for work purposes. Borys eventually downloaded some of the emails and provided them to her attorneys, who attached the evidence as exhibits in civil complaints.
Ballard’s attorneys say the records were sensitive or otherwise protected by attorney-client privilege.
Thomas Moukawsher, a retired complex litigation judge in Connecticut, agreed to review the case for FOX 13 News as a neutral third party.
“It’s an interesting question in the sense that you’ve just given somebody access to everything you have,” Moukawsher said. “It doesn’t help to have it be a mere verbal understanding... The less the information is protected, the more likely that the privilege could be lost.”
Moukawsher said the judge’s ruling on whether to exclude the evidence will likely depend on how critical the evidence is to the case. It will also hinge on the nature of the agreement between Borys and Ballard.
“Certainly, judges don’t want to reward people for doing something wrong with confidential information,” Moukawsher said. “But a judge might strike the balance in the other direction and say, well, this evidence is too important and the wrong that it exposes is too significant.”
Attorney Ken Sterling also agreed to review the case for FOX 13 News. He is a former OUR donor who disclosed having met Ballard once before. He said the donation and meeting does not impact his view of the case.
“She had authorization... I don’t think ‘stolen’ is the appropriate term here,” Sterling said. “I can see a possibility of a judge allowing this evidence to be used in Ms. Borys’ case because she was entitled to get into the email account. Mr. Ballard knew that she was going in there, and that waives the attorney-client privilege.”
“I still think the judge allows this because it might lead to something,” he added. “A lot of this is going to depend on what her role was when she was accessing those emails.”
Plaintiffs say some of the emails show Ballard receiving a blessing in which he’s anointed as the “chosen one... not subject to the jurisdiction of government and church authorities.”
Some of the emails relate to a criminal fraud investigation into Ballard which began in 2020.
One of the pages shows a screenshot of FOX 13 News investigative reporter Adam Herbets informing the public of the criminal investigation in 2020.
Documents drafted by OUR’s attorneys indicated Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings felt Ballard had engaged in “sexual affairs with eight different women all of whom were members of a group call(ed) ‘Mormon Women with Blue Eyes’ (‘MWBE’).”
Another page shows how the nonprofit had been reportedly informed that investigators had evidence Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes and Tim Ballard’s wife, Katherine Ballard, were “guilty of witness tampering.”
“(Davis County Attorney Troy) Rawlings alleged to have written communication which Katherine had sent via email to witnesses claiming Ballard was a second iteration of Joseph Smith and Rawlings is the devil, and further telling witnesses not to cooperate with Rawlings (the ‘Joseph Smith Email’).”
OUR and Ballard disputed the allegations.
The women believe the evidence is relevant to the case, even if it doesn’t directly prove whether Ballard sexually assaulted them. Their attorneys say Ballard waived any right to confidentiality by giving Borys access to his email address.
An attorney for Ballard said the inclusion of the information in the lawsuit is not relevant to the case and was simply intended to smear their client.
“In terms of a case that has high public interest? That’s the way it’s supposed to be. The matters that are filed in court and on the record are supposed to be public so people can determine whether their courts are doing a good job in handing out justice,” Moukawsher said. “The cat may be out of the bag here on this information anyway. It may be a simple matter for the plaintiffs of just subpoenaing all this information directly from the defendant.”