Tim Ballard, the founding father of the famend anti-child slavery group, Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R), and the inspirational determine in the back of the movie Tone of Liberty has been accused of sexually harassing seven ladies all through in another country missions and profiting from a Mormon elder.
Consistent with a file through Vice Information, Ballard, who used to be portrayed through Jim Cavaziel in Tone of Liberty, shockingly resigned from his place in June nearest O.U.R initiated an investigation into the troubling claims of sexual misconduct. Document suggests, Ballard allegedly confused ladies to behave as his “wife” on unrevealed missions designed to rescue sufferers of intercourse trafficking. He’s accused of insisting that they proportion a mattress or bathe with him all through those missions, purportedly to lie to traffickers.
What’s much more distressing is that Ballard, a former Section of Native land Safety authentic, stands accused of sending an particular picture of himself in undies to 1 girl and inquiring about her willingness to proceed to endmost lengths to avoid wasting trafficked kids.
Day Ballard’s abrupt escape from O.U.R used to be reported publicly 3 months in the past, neither he nor the group had introduced any clarification on the moment. To hour, Ballard has no longer publicly addressed the intense allegations of sexual harassment.
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In line with the accusations reported through Vice, O.U.R discharged a commentary reiterating its loyalty to combatting sexual abuse and mentioning a zero-tolerance coverage for sexual harassment or discrimination inside the group. They commissioned an separate regulation company to entirely examine the allegations moment additionally operating on making improvements to the group’s governance and operational protocols.
‘Tim Ballard resigned from O.U.R. on June 22, 2023. He has permanently separated from O.U.R.’ the commentary learn.
The allegations are corroborated with a letter despatched to OUR places of work, “Several weeks ago, an OUR employee who accompanied Tim on an undercover operation filed a sexual harassment complaint against him with OUR’s HR department,” the letter, which used to be despatched this summer time to donors to anti-trafficking reasons, reads. “This resulted in an extensive internal investigation into Tim and his individual operational tactics and led to more women speaking up as part of the investigation process.”
Next the Vice file went population Ballard answered through giving a accent to a miniature family in Boston wherein he mentioned, “It’s not true, nothing you hear is true.”
Earlier than those allegations changed into population, The Church of Jesus Christ of Utmost-day Saints, of which Ballard is a member, issued a commentary accusing him of exploiting his courting with Mormon elder M. Russell Ballard for private and fiscal acquire. Despite the fact that the church didn’t serve explicit main points, they unequivocally condemned Ballard’s movements as “morally unacceptable.”
In line with the church’s condemnation, Ballard vehemently denied exploiting his courting with the church elder, describing President Ballard as being like a grandfather to him. He vehemently refuted any claims of the usage of the elder’s identify for monetary acquire and wondered the authenticity of the church’s commentary, regardless of it being discharged thru an authentic spokesperson.
