A warning. This episode contains discussion of sexual assault that may be disturbing.

Listener discretion is advised.

As a note, we reached out to Tim Ballard's attorney to request an interview. Our requests went unanswered. And one last thing. After

Tim Ballard left the anti-trafficking organization O-U-R in 2023, it was renamed O-U-R- Rescue.

Its new leaders say they do not condone Tim Ballard's alleged actions

while part of the old organization.

Free writer was, and continued. Bree Rider was and continues to be in the business of making a difference. A marine veteran and licensed clinical social worker, Bree is wired to do the kind of work that means helping others.

So volunteering with Operation Underground Railroad and fighting back against child and human trafficking felt like a cause

worth aligning herself with. There was a calling to the work that she felt compelled

to answer and that volunteer work meant extensive training, both physical

and mental. Infiltrating the world of human trafficking means living in a world of dangerous and violent people who will stop at

nothing to protect their very large and very profitable enterprise.

Fighting back against human trafficking is a huge risk.

In order to prepare for those risky situations the work would require

Intel operations, infiltrating sex rings, blending in with rich and powerful traffickers.

Bree Ryder had to prove herself to O-U-R.

She knew it would be a test of her toughness, a measure of her grit.

And in October of 2021 at a gym in Draper, Utah,

Bree was training with the rest of OUR's volunteers when things got really physical.

Really, really physical.

So they had a big mat, like big square mat, and they put two operator in training, a pair of us on each

corner of the mat, so there were eight of us, and two fake knives in the middle of the mat and our task was to pass each other's guard to do some grappling

...