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Tim Ballard, the star figure depicted in the summer hit movie Sound of Freedom, <\/em>has been accused of battery and sexual assault by women who worked alongside him in anti-trafficking rescue operations.<\/p>\n In a lawsuit<\/a> filed this week in Utah, five unnamed women share detailed accounts of their experiences with Ballard. The film, which was released by the faith-based distributor Angel Studios, depicts the dramatic rescues that his organization, Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.), became known for.<\/p>\n The women say that Ballard\u2014a fellow Mormon and married father of nine\u2014would pressure them into pretending they were a couple, signing a non-disclosure agreement once they agreed, and performing sexual acts, supposedly as a way to fool traffickers. But the women\u00ad said he would also assault them when they were alone while describing his actions as \u201ctraining\u201d for pretending to be a couple on an operation. Ballard has denied the allegations.<\/p>\n One woman said that during her first meeting with Ballard, he explained the sexual acts she would need to act out with him in detail. \u201cI would have to be willing to do these things in order to save children,\u201d she stated in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n The women allege in various instances that he asked them to describe their sex lives and to prove to him that they could sexually arouse him. They also described his insistence that this \u201ccouples ruse\u201d was a \u201crevelation from God,\u201d that Mormon leadership had approved it, and that the women had been \u201ccarefully selected to save lives in a very unique way that God has trusted us to do.\u201d<\/p>\n While trafficking rescue operations can involve covert identities, experts say this alleged behavior would not be acceptable. Suzanne Lewis-Johnson, a former FBI agent and a Christian who worked on child trafficking cases in Ohio for a decade, reviewed the lawsuit against Ballard.<\/p>\n \u201cI ran operations in this arena. They did not look like that,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing normal about what I read in the lawsuit.\u201d<\/p>\n She said no law enforcement operation would require sex acts to do a rescue, and that coercing staff to engage in sex acts in their jobs could itself be considered forced labor<\/a> under federal trafficking statutes.<\/p>\n Most US anti-trafficking ministries do not center their work around covert rescue operations<\/a>, but they often find that volunteers expect that kind of work because they have seen it depicted in movies.<\/p>\n Christian audiences flocked to Sound of Freedom<\/em> this summer, a movie that raked in $184 million at the US box office<\/a>, more than the latest in the Mission: Impossible and Indiana Jones franchises. In recent decades<\/a> the fight against human trafficking has sparked increasing support and funding from evangelicals, with Christian groups describing anti-trafficking work as a new \u201cabolitionist\u201d movement<\/a>.<\/p>\n The movie is centered on Ballard\u2019s story of leaving work as an agent at the Department of Homeland Security to catch child traffickers himself. What the lawsuit alleges is that the sting operations Ballard became known for were often tools for his own sexual gratification, where he would take female staff to massage parlors and strip clubs as part of training and operations. The women describe him pressuring them into sexual encounters and nudity in strip clubs and massage parlors with escorts, as well as groping them and engaging in other sexual activity.<\/p>\n \u201cI kept thinking about how he had this government background and that they had probably taught him these techniques and that I should trust him,\u201d said one of the women in a statement.<\/p>\n The lawsuit says the women did not have previous experience in such operations, but got into the work at O.U.R. because of a personal passion to fight trafficking, and then were almost immediately recruited to act as Ballard\u2019s girlfriend. They said they had confided vulnerabilities to Ballard, like one woman being a rape survivor or another being a single mom.<\/p>\n The women say that O.U.R. provided little accountability for Ballard, that he misused organizational funds, and that two of their marriages ended because of his actions. They said they were shut out of rescue missions if they rejected Ballard\u2019s advances.<\/p>\n The lawsuit accuses O.U.R. of negligence after learning of the allegations and letting Ballard resign quietly ahead of Sound of Freedom<\/em>\u2019s release. That allowed the organization to use Ballard\u2019s \u201cface and the worldwide opening tour of Sound of Freedom <\/em>to raise money,\u201d the lawsuit alleges. One woman who accuses Ballard of sexual assault in the lawsuit said she met him at an early screening of the movie.<\/p>\n Ballard resigned from O.U.R. in late June 2023, shortly before Sound of Freedom<\/em>\u2019s theatrical release on July 4, but that was not publicized until after the film\u2019s release.<\/p>\n In September, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a rare statement<\/a>, saying that Ballard had \u201cbetrayed\u201d his friendship with the church\u2019s acting president, M. Russell Ballard, by using the president\u2019s name for \u201cpersonal advantage and activity regarded as morally unacceptable.\u201d The statement did not specify what the morally unacceptable behavior was.<\/p>\n Vice <\/em>has also reported allegations against Ballard<\/a>, as well as The Blaze<\/em><\/a>, a media organization founded by one of Ballard\u2019s biggest boosters, Glenn Beck. Beck has recently distanced himself from Ballard because of the allegations, saying he was \u201cduped\u201d by him<\/a>. Ballard has been considering a Senate run to take retiring Sen. Mitt Romney\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n Following these media reports, Ballard released a statement saying, \u201cDuring my time at O.U.R., I designed strict guidelines for myself and our operators in the field. Sexual contact was prohibited, and I led by example. Given our meticulous attention to this issue, any suggestion of inappropriate sexual contact is categorically false.\u201d<\/p>\n