SALT LAKE CITY — One of the lawsuits filed against Operation Underground Railroad and its former CEO, Tim Ballard, has been dismissed.
Judge Todd M. Shaughnessy said the case must be dismissed because of the way evidence against Ballard was obtained, not because of the merits of the case.
Celeste Borys accused Ballard of grooming and sexually assaulting her when they were supposed to be on “operations” to save children from human trafficking. For evidence, she downloaded more than 90 documents from Ballard’s email.
Borys worked under Ballard as his executive assistant, including after he was accused of sexual misconduct and “permanently separated” from OUR.
READ: Utah Crime Lab found Tim Ballard's sperm on his assistant's skirt, plaintiffs say
“In mid‐2023 Mr. Ballard’s relationship with OUR soured,” wrote Judge Shaughnessy. “OUR conducted an internal investigation of Mr. Ballard and ultimately his employment relationship was terminated. Mr. Ballard says he quit. OUR says he was fired.”
Borys stated that she quit, in part, because of Ballard’s "excessive drinking and his maniac personality." She still had access to Ballard’s accounts after quitting her job. She also maintained access after deciding to file the lawsuit.
According to Ballard, he knew Borys still had access but did not know she planned to sue him.
Judge Shaughnessy wrote Ballard was “extremely careless” and “negligent” when he chose not to change his password, but he ruled that is not the same as giving Borys permission.
Instead, the judge said Borys and her attorneys should have been patient because they probably would have been able to obtain most of the evidence through discovery anyway, even for some of the documents labeled “attorney-client privilege.”
“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,” the judge wrote. “What Ms. Borys did is no different than if she had used a key to access Mr. Ballard’s office in the dark of night to secretly photocopy documents from locked file drawers.”
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Judge Shaughnessy also stated the case should be dismissed with prejudice because Borys' attorneys demonstrated a "refusal to accept any accountability or responsibility."
Her attorneys said they were "disappointed” in the ruling and are currently contemplating an appeal.
“Importantly, the ruling does nothing to change the fact that Mr. Ballard has been publicly denounced and privately excommunicated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for his sexual perversions; that a Utah District Court judge that did evaluate the merits of evidence of what Ballard did to Ms. Borys has found that Ballard committed a sexually violent act against Ms. Borys and issued a Sexual Violence Protective Order to protect her from Mr. Ballard; and that the Utah State Crime Lab has confirmed that Mr. Ballard’s semen was found on Ms. Borys’ skirt."
According to the judge, Borys was able to obtain the records because Ballard failed to abide by the terms of his separation agreement with OUR which required him to return documents and company-related emails to the nonprofit.
Thomas Moukawsher, a retired complex litigation judge in Connecticut, agreed to review the case for FOX 13 News as a neutral third party in 2023.
He said he could see the possibility of some evidence being excluded from the case, but he did not expect the case to be thrown out.
“Certainly, judges don’t want to reward people for doing something wrong with confidential information,” Moukawsher said. “The cat may be out of the bag here on this information anyway... 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.”
Judge Shaughnessy evidently disagreed. He found that Borys’ testimony was "not credible" when she declared that she only downloaded the files "to figure out what had happened to me," not "for litigation."
"The conduct by Ms. Borys and her attorneys was intentional or willful,” wrote Judge Shaughnessy. “It was a deliberate effort to bypass discovery and the requirements of the rules of civil procedure."
Celeste Borys' husband, Mike Borys, also filed a lawsuit against Tim Ballard and OUR. It alleges fraud, conspiracy, and infliction of emotional distress. The judge ruled his lawsuit can proceed.
Some of the evidence obtained by Borys was submitted by five other women who have sued Ballard for sexual misconduct. It remains to be seen if this ruling will affect those cases.