SALT LAKE CITY — Tim Ballard, the founder of Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), has filed a defamation lawsuit against Miss Utah 2004.
He says Amy Morgan Davis lied when she accused him of sexual assault.
Now both sides are releasing text messages to bolster their cases.
Davis initially sued Ballard in 2023 under the pseudonym “MK” to hide her identity.
She was one of six women who filed lawsuits against Ballard for sexual misconduct.
The case is ongoing.
Davis said she wanted to go undercover with Ballard as part of an “operation” to save children from human trafficking.
According to her lawsuit, she said Ballard invited her to pose as his girlfriend, but first she “needed to prove that (they) had a strong enough connection.”
"He stared at me and said you can't touch me but need to show me what you can do to basically 'turn me on enough' that he would want to have sex with me."
Davis also stated Ballard told her they might have to fool traffickers by doing things like “showering together” or “have an orgasm if needed for them to hear it or fake it.”
“If we were in a hot tub together- he would have to touch me under the water so they would believe we were into each other. Which meant under my swimsuit... I would have to turn him on enough that he'd want to have sex with me when we got back to the hotel.”
Ballard has denied the allegations but referred to the undercover technique as the “couple’s ruse.”
OUR has since “permanently separated” from Ballard and abandoned use of the technique.
According to her witness statement, Davis was “very uncomfortable.”
According to text messages released by Ballard, Davis stated she “felt really comfortable.”
Alan Mortensen, the attorney representing Davis, stated Ballard’s messages were part of a “grooming” technique; tricking her into doing sexually explicit things that she would otherwise never do.
“If you read through the texts, you can see that he’s inviting her to go to strip clubs, inviting her to be flirtatious,” Mortensen said. “These women would trust him, and now he’s blaming them for trusting him.”
Some of the messages were sent by Davis after the alleged sex assault
Davis wrote to Ballard that she “loved our connection.”
“Our time together did mean something to me,” she wrote.
“Maybe your eyes cast a spell on me lol,” Davis later added. “Baby blues.”
In response, Mortensen said Davis was “in character,” essentially “auditioning” for the undercover job.
“If he touched (her) under a false pretense? That, by definition, is sex assault,” Mortensen said.
Davis said she felt she must correctly perform the “couple’s ruse” in order for her to go on an upcoming mission.
“Her uncle was one of Tim Ballard’s big supporters and went on an op with him,” Mortensen said. “She wanted to help the cause... She didn’t realize that she had been sexually assaulted because she thought the couple’s ruse was still legitimate.”
In a video released exclusively to FOX 13 News, Ballard referred to the case as “so simple.”
“Her text messages speak for themselves,” Ballard said. “She alleges that I assaulted her one night. I allege that she assaulted me!”
Davis’ legal team has also released screenshots of text messages.
In a group chat, Ballard is seen telling people that Davis “will be helping me with role play.”
In his conversation with Davis, Ballard discussed erotic massages and suggests going to a Salt Lake City strip club called “Exotic Kitty.”
“Let’s go clubbing Thursday night,” Ballard wrote. “Find our groove in dirty places.”
“He loves to be with women in dirty places,” Mortensen said. “He pays a lot of donor money for women in dirty places... She’s just this outstanding person who wants to help the world, and she was victimized because of it by Tim Ballard.”
Mortensen said Ballard has exchanged similar messages with his other five accusers, sometimes claiming to be “in character.”
Court exhibits show Ballard discussing religion and exchanging sexually explicit messages with a woman who goes by the pseudonym “JJ.”
FOX 13 News has reached out to Ballard’s team for an interview.
So far, they have not set one up.