jesus christ lineage lds Tim Ballard’s victims claim connection between him and late LDS apostle

Tim Ballard’s victims claim connection between him and late LDS apostle

NOTE: A lawsuit represents only one side of a story.

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — New claims about a deceased church leader, the late President M. Russell Ballard of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have been released in an amendment to a lawsuit against former Operation Underground Railroad CEO Tim Ballard.

The amendment was filed on April 26, 2024, in relation to the lawsuit filed by five women against Tim Ballard, his wife, and other associated companies and members of the OUR board.

The amended lawsuit now includes claims that the late Latter-day Saint apostle M. Russell Ballard “sanctioned” an OUR initiative that the plaintiffs say allowed the trafficking and assault of the women who went on undercover operations with Tim Ballard.

The lawsuit alleges that Tim Ballard claimed he was related to President Ballard, sometimes saying the Latter-day Saint leader was his grandfather or his uncle — however, the lawsuit says, “neither statement is true and there is no close familial tie at all.”

How does the suit claim M. Russell Ballard was involved?

“Witnesses report that President Ballard was enamored by Tim Ballard’s faux history books regarding the ‘American Covenant,'” the lawsuit claims.

The ‘Word of Wisdom’

“Upon information and belief, President Ballard and other leaders of the Mormon Church asked Tim Ballard to write a book declaring that the Word of Wisdom is not true,” the lawsuit says.

According to the church’s beliefs, the founder of the Latter-day Saint faith received direction from God on what members of the church should and should not consume for their “physical and spiritual benefit.”

Members of the faith are urged to not drink alcohol, coffee and tea, in addition to avoiding tobacco. The lawsuit claims Tim Ballard was addicted to drugs, alcohol and sex.

“Ballard was, fortuitously given his command to write a book for the Mormon Church declaring that the Word of Wisdom was not true doctrine, thus allowing him to consume excessive amounts of alcohol (tequila) of his own volition,” the lawsuit says.

‘The couples ruse’

The lawsuit says the “couples ruse” was “sanctioned” by President Ballard.

“Ballard claims that the COUPLES RUSE was an undercover tool to prevent detection by pedophiles when Ballard would not engage in sexual touching of the trafficked women offered up to him in strip clubs and massage parlors across the world,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also says the couples ruse “was not used to find children, but was a ruse to commit sexual assaults of his COUPLES RUSE partners.”

Awareness of assaults

According to the lawsuit, Tim Ballard called President Ballard after he allegedly went to one of the plaintiff’s homes and assaulted her.

“President Ballard did not tell Tim Ballard to go to the police and report his horrible act,” the lawsuit says. “Rather, President Ballard told Ballard to do better at obeying the COUPLES RUSE rules.”

Psychics

Additionally, the amendments to the lawsuit claim that President Ballard used the same psychic as Tim Ballard — Janet Russon, who is also listed as a defendant — to advise him on how to proceed “in all aspects” of his life.

“Some witnesses have claimed that Janet Russon was President Ballard’s personal psychic, and that President Ballard vouched for her psychic powers,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also says another man received visions of Tim Ballard and shared those visions with President Ballard.

Business dealings

The lawsuit says President Ballard “experienced repeated business failures in his life but was financially rescued by the Mormon Church.” After he was “rescued,” he received his leadership positions, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges President Ballard “used his authority and position” in order to get business coaching, mentorship and donations for Tim Ballard from wealthy members of the church. President Ballard reportedly met “regularly” with Tim Ballard in regard to business dealings.

The lawsuit also says President Ballard created a private business with Tim Ballard and others, which was said to operate out of offices owned by the apostle’s son-in-law. That business was called Slave Stealers, LLC, according to the lawsuit.

“President Ballard leaned on his wealthy, tithing paying friends and pressured his peers in the Quorum of the Twelve and Seventy for significant donations to Slave Stealers to use,” according to the lawsuit.

The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is a group of some of the highest-ranking church leaders in the Latter-day Saint faith. The church also has leaders called “General Authority Seventies,” who also have leadership status but are a lower rank than those in the Quorum of the Twelve.

What the Latter-day Saint church has said about Tim Ballard

According to the lawsuit, “On September 15, 2023, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints publicly denounced Ballard for his immoral behavior.”

Tim Ballard reportedly asked for a letter from a local church leader — his bishop — to say that Ballard was still in good standing with the church. His bishop wrote the letter, but later rescinded it after the church issued its official statement.

Tim Ballard was later excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to the lawsuit. That means the church decided that he was no longer a member of the church and was restricted from certain practices and duties.

The response of Tim Ballard’s team to the latest amendments

A spokesperson for Tim Ballard responded to ABC4.com’s request for comment. His full statement can be read below:

The plaintiffs in these cases will smear anyone – including respected members of the LDS church – without any evidence at all if they think it can help them get rich. Most of the claims in these motions are irrelevant to their claims in court so they appear to use them to try to generate some sympathetic media coverage to pressure their targets to pay up.”

Chad Kolton, spokesperson for Tim Ballard

Conversion, connection bookend BYU grad’s journey

Growing up in Houston, Texas, Garrett Mast had always envisioned attending college on the East Coast, home to some of the nation’s oldest and most iconic campuses. But after joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a 16-year-old, the opportunity for an education at BYU was something he couldn’t resist.

“I was always invested in going to school, but BYU gave me more options to pursue things I was interested in,” he recalled.

But the transition from Texas to BYU wasn’t easy. Mast’s first semester on campus was in the fall of 2020, and many of his classes were online due to the ongoing pandemic. He found camaraderie and community in his student ward, and for the first time in his life, he was surrounded by friends united under the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“Some of my friends from high school were at different universities that were completely shut down. But here we had church, and we were meeting. It was nice to have this group of friends who had the same beliefs and the same desires to make the best of the situation,” said Mast. “My freshman year I had a support group that came from being a member of the ward.”

Thanks to several on-campus jobs and experiential learning opportunities, Mast, who is set to graduate later this month with a degree in family history, said he’s had a front-row seat in seeing the positive impact BYU and its graduates have across the globe. One of his first campus jobs was with the audio crew for BYU theatre and media arts performances. He remembers the organized chaos of running audio setup and controls during countless concerts and live events on campus and across the world.

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“I toured with some BYU performing groups in Germany, and I thought it was cool to meet members of the Church there and to see what a wide outreach BYU has and the positive impact it has on the world,” said Mast. “It was an especially cool experience for me to go to places in rural Germany and see people who knew about BYU and what it stands for.”

But it was an introductory family history course that sparked Mast’s passion for research. He said he felt drawn to studying family history, even if it wasn’t his first intended major. He accepted an on-campus job in the Center for Family History and Genealogy after his junior year and now leads more than 20 research assistants who are focused on researching individuals who lived in Nauvoo when the Church was headquartered there.

“We’re identifying everyone who lived in Nauvoo during that time and doing genealogy research on these early Saints,” said Mast, noting that they hope to someday turn the research into narrative histories.