The Utah County attorney has opted not to file criminal charges against Tim Ballard stemming from sexual assault allegations by a former assistant in 2023.

In November 2023, the Lindon Police Department confirmed Ballard’s former executive assistant, Celeste Borys, had filed a police report alleging Ballard — who’d become an international celebrity as an anti-child trafficking crusader — had sexually assaulted her and the department was investigating the claim.

Ballard has denied any wrongdoing throughout.

The Utah County Attorney’s office, after reviewing the investigative material, opted this January not to file criminal charges, a spokesperson for the office told The Salt Lake Tribune.

“At this time, based upon the information submitted to our office, we have determined there is outside for a reasonable likelihood of success at trial, and we are declining the case,” Christine Scott, chief of the Utah County Attorney’s major crimes unit, wrote in an email to Derek Clegg, the Lindon police officer who investigated the case.

Mark Eisenhut, an attorney for Ballard, said that Ballard and his lawyers “are grateful that the investigators took their role seriously and, after reviewing the evidence, confirmed there is no basis to pursue any charges against Mr. Ballard. Mr. Ballard has worked tirelessly to rescue and help children and women worldwide, and has repeatedly and confidently confirmed that he has never sexually assaulted anyone.”

Borys’ attorney, Alan Mortensen, said Borys is “deeply disappointed” with the county attorney’s decision, but it is “not a finding that the assaults did not occur.” Mortensen said the outcome is “not the final word on truth” and noted that physical evidence from the Utah County investigation and a judge’s earlier decision to grant Borys a sexual violence protective order against Ballard are evidence an assault occurred.

It is the second investigation into alleged misconduct by Ballard that has ended without charges. Last November, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in a statement that his office lacked the evidence to charge Ballard with either sexual assault or misconduct.

“While the survivors have provided important and compelling statements,” Gill said at the time, “critical corroborating evidence is unavailable, and certain necessary elements of the charges cannot be established with the certainty required by the law.”

Borys had also filed a series of police reports with jurisdictions in California in 2023.

Paul Cassell, a former federal judge who is now a law professor at the University of Utah, said a small percentage of rapes or sexual assaults that are committed are ever successfully prosecuted.

There are frequently obstacles to gathering physical evidence or presenting witnesses to corroborate conflicting accounts of what happened, he said, making it difficult to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt a crime was committed.

“Prosecuting a rape case or sexual assault case is among the most difficult kinds of cases that the prosecutors face, primarily because of the difficulty in collecting evidence to get outside of the ‘he-said, she-said’ conflicting accounts,” Cassell said.

The recently released Utah County investigative file details the specifics of Bory’s assault allegation, a series of interviews over nine months and the results of a DNA test of a semen stain on Borys’ skirt. A forensic scientist with the Utah Crime Lab reported the results proved “very strong support” that it was Ballard’s.

The investigative report was filed recently as an exhibit in a civil lawsuit against Ballard. A spokesperson for the Utah County Attorney’s office confirmed the authenticity of the report.

Ballard did not speak with the investigator. His criminal defense attorney told the officer that Borys lacked credibility and only went to police after a series of civil lawsuits had been filed by multiple women accusing Ballard of sexual misconduct.

Asked by the investigator how Ballard’s semen was found on Borys’ skirt, the attorney said it was from a consensual sexual encounter, which they had when they were on child rescue operations.

Ballard has publicly denied having had sexual relations with any of his accusers and Eisenhunt said he didn’t know why Ballard’s criminal lawyer would have told that to investigators

Borys was one of six women who filed two civil lawsuits against Ballard in 2023 accusing him of sexual misconduct. Her lawsuit was terminated because the judge in the case determined her attorneys, in part, built the case on documents Borys had taken from Ballard during and after the time she worked for him.

The decision is being appealed.

The second lawsuit, brought by the other five women, is pending, but Ballard’s attorneys have also asked the judge to dismiss it. He has also sued the women for defamation.

In June 2023, the board of Operation Underground Railroad, the anti-trafficking group Ballard founded, demanded Ballard leave after an investigation was conducted into allegations of misconduct.

His ouster came shortly before the release of “Sound of Freedom,” a movie based loosely on his efforts to rescue trafficked children, which generated more than $250 million in box office sales.

That September, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a rare rebuke of Ballard, who had allegedly touted his friendship with a senior apostle in the church, M. Russell Ballard. They are not related.

In its statement, the church said Ballard misused President Ballard’s name for “personal advantage and activity regarded as morally unacceptable.” M. Russell Ballard died that November.

Last November, Tim Ballard accused entities within the LDS Church of conspiring to withdraw his fellowship and destroy his reputation and derail his plans to run for U.S. Senate and demanded the church retract the statement. A church spokesperson declined to comment on Ballard’s claim.