A woman suing Tim Ballard alleging a character in the movie “Sound of Freedom” — loosely based by Ballard’s anti-trafficking work — depicted her in a false and defamatory light was convicted Monday of pimping a child under 14 years by a court in Colombia.
The suit stems from a 2014 sting in Colombia that Ballard participated in where he and others posed as rich Americans looking for a child sex party. Attorney General Sean Reyes posed as a bodyguard during the operation. It became a central narrative in the movie Sound of Freedom, released last year.
Kely Suarez has been depicted by Ballard in various speeches as a former beauty queen who sold children into sexual slavery. Filmmakers said she was the basis for the “Sound of Freedom” character “Giselle,” who uses the guise of running a modeling agency to abduct kids and sell them to sex traffickers.
She sued Ballard and the filmmakers in February, claiming she was never involved in child trafficking and was, in fact, trafficked. She and other young people ranging from 13 to 30 were paid by Ballard to attend an island party promoted on Facebook and, according to her suit, was mistaken for another woman who helped plan the island meet-up.
Her suit hinged on the fact that, years after police busted the party, she had not been convicted of any crime.
But on Monday, she and three other organizers of the party were convicted of pimping, which Ballard said in a statement shows the allegations that have been made against him are baseless.
“The same attorneys who have so far lost every case against me and my wife promoted the false claims of [a] woman now convicted of child sex trafficking, likely dooming her civil case, too,” he said. “This conviction proves the value of our work to protect innocent children and continues an unbroken string of failures in cases against me, which courts consistently dismiss for lack of evidence, substance, or consistency.”
Suarez’s attorneys, though, say that there will be an appeal.
“Obviously, Ms. Suarez, her partner and her mother, are devastated as she is facing twenty years in a Colombian jail,” her attorneys said in a statement Tuesday. “However, victim advocates from around the world are donating their money for Kely to appeal this matter to the Colombian Supreme Court with the best appellate attorneys in Colombia.”
They said that evidence shows Suarez was innocent. A Colombian investigator testified that Suarez was a “passive” participant and was “put on the table” by organizers to make the island party happen.
The attorneys also said that all of the attendees at the party were above the age of consent and Ballard’s group paid them to attend, as well as buses and boats to get to the island, creating the demand for trafficking.
The conviction is the latest setback in a series of lawsuits filed against Ballard.
Two have been dismissed — one filed by a woman who accused Ballard of arranging to intimidate her into not posting social media messages critical of Ballard and OUR, and the other by a woman who suffered a shattered eye socket during a training event at OUR’s Draper gym.
Last month, a domestic relations commissioner also declined to renew a sexual violence protective order issued to Kira Lynch, who says Ballard raped her in 2022. Ballard’s attorneys said the order prevented Ballard from taking his children to school, since they attend the same school as Lynch’s kids, and kept him from possessing guns.
Lynch’s attorneys said they plan to ask a judge to review all the evidence and reverse the commissioner’s preliminary finding.
A hearing on another protective order obtained by Celeste Borys, Ballard’s former executive assistant who said she was also raped by Ballard, was postponed until next month.
Borys’ suit alleging that Ballard sexually assaulted and raped her on multiple occasions is still pending, as is a suit filed by Lynch and four other women alleging sexual assault and abuse.
Lynch and Borys have also filed a series of criminal complaints against Ballard in Utah and California.