Colombian Woman Who Filed ‘Sound of Freedom’ Lawsuit Now Convicted of Child Abuse

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The Colombian woman who sued Tim Ballard, among others, for the “defamatory” portrayal of a character in the film “Sound of Freedom” has been convicted of child sexual exploitation, Latin American news sources said.

Kely Johana Suarez Moya was convicted of incitement to prostitution and child prostitution in connection with an incident that took place in 2014, Colombian news sources said The Universal And Caracol Radio reported on Monday, September 2.

The court found Moya guilty of recruiting minors under the age of 14 for sexual acts at a party in the Isla Barú region in 2014. According to Caracol Radio, 54 children and adolescents were rescued from the party that day.

The conviction came after years of legal battles surrounding Moya’s alleged involvement in a child trafficking ring. She was first arrested following the 2014 Operation Underground Railroad (OUR) “sting operation,” in which Ballard and his associates staged a fake sex party to catch pedophiles and child traffickers.

She was released by habeas corpus 18 months later and as of this week still not convicted of any charges related to the 2014 incident.

In February, she filed a lawsuit to Tim and Katherine Ballard, US, And Angel Studiosin part for her portrayal of a character from ‘Sound of Freedom’ that she claims is openly based on her.

She alleged that the film portrayed her as a “monster” who owned a modeling agency and trafficked children. Her lawsuit — filed in Utah — alleged that she never had a modeling agency and that she was mistaken for someone else during the OUR sting operation.

In the lawsuit, Moya claims she was at the party as one of the girls who was paid to have sex, not as the party organizer. Ballard’s spokesperson previously disputed that explanation, however, offer a video where she is reportedly seen during one of the planning meetings.

Ballard commented on Moya’s conviction, saying it “demonstrates the value of our work to protect innocent children and continues the unbroken string of failures in cases against me.”

However, Moya’s lawyers in Utah say the conviction is not due to her guilt, but rather to Ballard using donor money to “secure a conviction.” They say he bragged about his trip to Colombia to secure the conviction, adding weight to her defamation case.

“Utah citizens must not forget that an innocent woman of color caught in a cosplay raid is facing up to 20 years in a Colombian prison,” their statement reads. “Putting innocent women of color in jail to make his fake life seem legitimate is not the type of person we want as the face of our state and does not align with Utah’s values.”

The full statements from Tim Ballard and Moya’s attorneys provided to ABC4 can be read below:

“The same attorneys who have lost every case against me and my wife to date have promoted the false claims of a woman now convicted of child sex trafficking, likely dooming her civil case to failure as well. This conviction proves the value of our work to protect innocent children and continues an unbroken streak of failed cases against me, which are consistently dismissed by courts for lack of evidence, substance, or consistency.”

Tim Ballard

“Ballard’s boast that he went to Colombia with donor money to secure a conviction further opens his life up to wider discovery in the defamation case to show what Ballard did to secure a conviction. Utahns should not forget that an innocent woman of color caught in a cosplay raid could face up to 20 years in a Colombian prison. It is also troubling that Ballard told the media last year that Kely was serving a 20-year sentence before her case was reactivated. Jailing innocent women of color to make his fake life seem legitimate is not the type of person we want as the face of our state and is inconsistent with Utah’s values.

Once again we see Tim Ballard as the closest thing to a mob boss we have in Utah. He lies to mothers so he can sexually abuse them. He uses donor money to have sex with escorts who charge more per hour than his team of lawyers. He continues to pay government officials with donor money to cover his tracks. He has so compromised our Utah Attorney General that he cannot run for re-election to avoid investigation or prosecution. And he has bypassed religious leaders who fell for his deception. And yet he still cannot produce the kidnapped sex slave child he claims to have rescued. His books are no longer sold in Deseret Books. He has been excommunicated from the LDS Church. And he still does not deny that his semen was found on the skirts of his “undercover” couple. Ballard takes his victory lap at the expense of an innocent woman – but at the end of the day – he is still Tim Ballard. What can we be proud of?!”

Attorney Alan W. Mortensen