SALT LAKE CITY — A district attorney based in Salt Lake City is declining to file charges against the founder of an anti-child-trafficking organization — made famous by the 2023 movie “Sound of Freedom” — in the wake of sexual assault claims by several women in lawsuits.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill issued a statement Friday saying there is “insufficient admissible evidence,” and his office has declined to file charges against Tim Ballard in connection with the allegations.
“It does not mean that we disbelieve or diminish a survivor’s account, but rather that the law requires evidence strong enough to remove every reasonable doubt for a jury,” Gill said in the statement.
In two lawsuits, women have accused Ballard of exploiting his position as founder of Operation Underground Railroad and their desire to help combat child trafficking to abuse them.
One lawsuit has been dismissed with an appeal pending, and another is still active, the Salt Lake City Tribune reported.
“Tim Ballard is innocent so the fact that there will be no charges makes absolute sense,” said Mark Eisenhut, an attorney for Ballard. “We hope the authorities will strongly consider charges against false accusers.”
He resigned from Operation Underground Railroad amid the sexual assault allegations.
SLC's District Attorney essentially concluded, that he believes the survivors of Tim Ballard's sexual abuse, but not enough to inconvenience a judge or jury. Meanwhile, Ballard's lawyer wants to criminally and civilly charge the victims.
"If Operation Underground Railroad isn’t a worthwhile cause, I can’t imagine what would be," wrote Daniel C. Peterson. Peterson has been letting his readers know that he and his wife contribute and publicly encouraging them to do so since 2014.
Thanks DCP!
"I'm on paid sabbatical from BYU in exchange for my promise to use this time to finish two books."
I’d imagine some senior people in the Church are relieved that their interactions with Tim, and their deceased colleagues' interactions with Tim, are now likely to remain out of the public eye.
Premise 1. Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable.
Premise 2. The best evidence for the Book of Mormon is eyewitness testimony.
Conclusion. Therefore, the best evidence for the Book of Mormon is notoriously unreliable.
In high profile cases, like this of Tim Ballard, when a prosecutor does not have enough evidence that he reasonably believes he could get a conviction, usually (a) the investigation continues to find the added evidence needed to pass the beyond-reasonable-doubt threshold, and/or (b) the evidence is turned over to a grand jury for it to decide to indict or not.
It does, from the sound of it, seem like the Utah district attorney is indeed shielding Tim Ballard.
"There will come a time when the rich own all the media, and it will be impossible for the public to make an informed opinion." Albert Einstein, ~1949 "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." Voltaire
Unfortunately it seems Utah does not rely on grand juries as heavily as other states. In this case, though, I think summoning a jury would go a long way towards building public trust that this case wasn’t just shoved under the rug.
Of course the district attorney is the one presenting the case to the grand jury, and they can easily bias the jury one way or the other depending on what evidence they show and with what tone.
Our system of justice does a great job at protecting sexual predators. Just ask any woman who has ever tried to get justice after being assaulted.
