Colombian woman sues Tim Ballard, Angel Studios over ‘slanderous’ portrayal as villain in ‘Sound of Freedom’

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

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — A Colombian woman is suing Tim Ballard and others after alleging that the 2023 film “Sound of Freedom” portrayed a character (which was openly based on her) in a way that was “defamatory and slanderous,” according to court documents.

“This is a case of a young Colombian woman who was tragically condemned by the Defendants to the entire world as being a child trafficker without any due process or due diligence by the Defendants,” the lawsuit says.

Kely Johana Suarez Moya and her mother Luz Miriam Moya Solano are listed in court documents as the plaintiffs of the lawsuit. Tim Ballard, his wife Katherine Ballard, the organization Operation Underground Railroad, and the film studio Angel Studios are among the more than 10 defendants in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says the portrayal of Moya in the film “is highly offensive and has exposed Plaintiff Kely to hatred, contempt, or ridicule in the public eye.”

LEARN MORE: Everything to know about the Tim Ballard controversies

Why is Kely Moya suing Tim Ballard?

Moya’s lawsuit is the fifth lawsuit that has been filed against Ballard following recent controversy.

According to court documents, “Plaintiff Kely has been extremely traumatized by the additional new, negative publicity, which has led her to attend psychotherapy.”

Angel Studios promoted the 2023 film using side-by-side photos on billboards and posters, showing Moya and the character from “Sound of Freedom” named Katy Giselle, who was openly based on Moya, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also says both the studio and OUR explained that the character of Giselle represented Moya, with OUR saying on social media that she was “nothing short of a monster,” according to images in the lawsuit.

Angel Studios, in a blog post that is no longer available on its website, claimed Moya “exploited her reputation in a poverty-stricken neighborhood to recruit children for sex trafficking,” according to court documents.

Moya is seeking “a reasonable sum” of punitive damages to address the invasion of privacy, emotional distress and defamation that resulted from the film’s “reckless release.”

Who is Kely Moya?

“Plaintiff Kely went from being an anonymous face in the crowd, to being hated in Colombia,” the lawsuit says.

In the film, the character based on Moya is shown to be a wealthy beauty queen with a child modeling agency, who is known to traffic her models to the cartel in Cartagena, Colombia.

None of that is true, according to the lawsuit.

In fact, the lawsuit says Moya never actually won the popularity contest she entered into. She represented her neighborhood in a competition, which was a contest to become an ambassador for her neighborhood, according to the lawsuit.

Court documents also reveal that Moya reportedly never had a modeling agency for children.

“Plaintiff Kely was not well-known to anyone in Cartagena, outside of her close family and friends,” the lawsuit continues.

However, after an OUR “sting operation” in 2014 — where, according to the lawsuit, Moya was mistaken for someone else — Moya was arrested and named as a trafficker and spent 18 months in a Cartagena prison while awaiting trial.

While Ballard testified against her in Colombia, Moya was released by habeas corpus and was never convicted of any crimes relating to the situation, according to court documents.

What claims does the suit make between Kely Moya and Tim Ballard?

According to court documents, the first meeting that was held to organize the “pedophile party” for the planned OUR rescue was on Oct. 7, 2014. The meeting was between Ballard, a Colombian special agent and a man named Eduardo, who had agreed to help gather the underage children for the party.

The lawsuit says, “Defendant Ballard knew from the very beginning that Plaintiff Kely was not at any of the three meetings where Operation Triple Take was planned, yet he has testified she was at the meetings.”

According to the lawsuit, Ballard gave Eduardo money for the party and the group decided to post on Facebook to invite young people to the party. According to the lawsuit, Moya was not at the meeting — a fact that was verified by court records.

In the following days, Oct. 9 and 10, there were more meetings and phone calls to discuss the party, and three other individuals were involved and said they could bring children for the party — Samuel David Olave Martinez, Luis Miguel Mosquera Cuesta and Natalie “Naty” Taborda Atencio.

The lawsuit points out that Moya was not present at the additional planning meetings, nor was she mentioned in the phone calls, as verified by court records.

According to the lawsuit, Martinez worked at a modeling school, where he reportedly met Moya — and where he was planning to recruit children for the party. Martinez told Moya a man from North America (one of Ballard’s acquaintances) wanted to have sex with a young Black girl and that she would be paid to go to the party, as stated in the lawsuit.

Moya later attended two meetings with Eduardo and Ballard — after the party had reportedly been planned — to show that Martinez had girls ready for the party, according to the documents.

Contrary to what was shown in “Sound of Freedom,” the lawsuit says the children and young adults (whose ages ranged from 11 to 30 years old) were not kept in shipping containers, nor were they previously victims of sex trafficking.

Additionally, the lawsuit alleges Moya did not invite anyone to the party. She reportedly sat with Martinez at a table with Ballard because she knew Martinez.

However, when Ballard gave money to Eduardo and Martinez (but not Moya, according to the lawsuit), officials came in and arrested Moya and the others.

“Plaintiff Kely had been confused for ‘Naty’, as Plaintiff Kely had no involvement in planning the party, obtaining the young adults, and was not aware of the false pretense of the party until she was arrested,” the lawsuit says.

According to the lawsuit, because the whole operation was allegedly planned as part of a for-profit film project of Ballard’s, there were cameras filming the operation.

What does the suit say happened to Kely Moya?

“Plaintiff Kely’s normal life was destroyed,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit claims Moya was hated by the people of Cartagena after her arrest, was spat on and received death threats.

Moya was imprisoned for 18 months and was later released on habeas corpus — but, according to the lawsuit, Ballard allegedly claimed in a movie script that she was released because of “corrupt judges.”

Moya later attended and graduated from law school and was “ready to put this horrible experience behind her” after a few years, according to the lawsuit. However, once “Sound of Freedom” began promoting its film in 2023, Moya was once again the recipient of negative attention, according to the lawsuit.

“Angel Studios also doubled down on Plaintiff Kely’s image, again painting her as a monster child trafficker,” the lawsuit says.

In the lawsuit, it says the defendants published the defamatory statements about Moya “negligently and/or with actual malice.” The lawsuit continues to say that Moya is afraid to go out in public, even though she has not been convicted of anything.

According to court documents, both the United States and Colombia have “constitutional provisions” indicating that individuals are to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Moya’s mother, who is also listed as a plaintiff, is also said to have suffered as a result of her daughter’s arrest and the release of “Sound of Freedom,” as the lawsuit says Moya was “retraumatized by the reckless release” of the film.

Moya filed the lawsuit in February 2024. The full lawsuit can be viewed below.

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