A woman has dropped her lawsuit against Sean Reyes that alleged the attorney general used his position to try to silence her criticism of Tim Ballard and Operation Underground Railroad, the anti-trafficking organization Ballard founded.
Attorneys for Suzanne Whitehead filed their motion to dismiss the lawsuit Tuesday, citing a recent meeting she and other women suing Ballard had with Reyes.
“General Reyes met with the plaintiff and explained his involvement in the matter and apologized to the plaintiff,” the motion states. “Plaintiff has accepted his apology.”
Seven women have filed three civil suits accusing Ballard of sexual misconduct and assault. One of the seven also alleges negligence on behalf of OUR and Ballard led to a serious injury during a training session.
Whitehead had also sued Reyes and Ballard, claiming the attorney general contacted her supervisor after she was critical of claims OUR made about the care provided to victims of trafficking.
After meeting with the women, Reyes said he apologized that his close friendship and support for Ballard and OUR had created an environment where the women felt “powerless and without a voice to fight back for many years.”
Reyes also announced his office would conduct a criminal investigation into the allegations against Ballard and OUR, although he would not be involved because of his ties to Ballard.
The motion notes that if it is later discovered that Reyes misled the plaintiff about his involvement with Ballard, she could re-file the suit. Her lawsuit alleging intimidation by Ballard and OUR remains in effect.
Ballard asks a judge to exclude exhibits
Meanwhile, attorneys for Ballard asked a judge in the assault case brought by five of the women to exclude several exhibits that the plaintiffs included in their suit, claiming they were privileged information that was stolen by Ballard’s former executive assistant, Celeste Borys, who’d accuses Ballard in her lawsuit of “violent sexual assaults.”
The motion, filed Wednesday, is the first response from Ballard and his team to the allegations against him.
Ballard says that Borys had access to his email account and believes several of the documents — like memos from OUR attorneys, discussion of his severance when he was ousted from OUR, and a priesthood blessing from Thom Harrison, the author of the book “Visions of Glory” — were taken by Borys and provided to her attorneys.
Earlier in the week, OUR made similar allegations that Borys had stolen documents and countersued her for damage done to the nonprofit’s reputation.
Alan Mortensen, one of Borys’ attorneys, said the facts “will demonstrate that Ms. Borys stole nothing nor did anything inappropriate in obtaining those documents.”
“It is sadly ironic that Tim Ballard makes this claim when he has built a career on stealing from donors, has never paid Ms. Borys her agreed upon salary and ran up Ms. Borys’ credit cards traveling around to his red carpet events of a fictionalized movie that misrepresents his self-proclaimed exploits,” Mortensen said.
A fuller response to the lawsuit will come after a judge decides whether to strike the contested exhibits from the lawsuit, Ballard’s attorneys said.
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