Tim Ballard’s First O.U.R. Wingman: The Legend of Steven T. Cass
For additional articles covering OUR, please go to ACJ Investigates- Derailed: Operation Underground Railroad
Editor’s Note: Lynn Packer is an award-winning investigative reporter, legal consultant and author of “Lying for the Lord: The Paul H. Dunn Stories“. Lynn graduated from Utah State University with a degree in broadcast journalism. He served in the United States Army from ’68 through ’70 in Vietnam, as a television news anchor and producer for the Armed Forces Vietnam Network (AFVN) Quang Tri detachment. He was awarded the Bronze Star. For 15 years Mr. Packer reported for KSL Television News in Salt Lake City. For ten years Lynn was an adjunct professor teaching journalism at Brigham Young University and the University of Dortmund.
We’d like to thank Mr. Packer for his service, dedication and contributions to journalism and ongoing quest for the truth.
It all began with a single sentence.
Until now the identify of Operation Underground Railroad’s top, undercover operative was kept secret. Code-named “Batman,” he claims to have set up all the Utah nonprofit’s first child sex slave rescues in Latin America. Now, for the first time, Batman is unmasked, his face and name revealed. He talks about his work with OUR founder and CEO Tim Ballard who, Batman says, was a “really good man” until being “destroyed” by “fame and money.” But he also says Ballard is “innocent” of any suspected criminal misconduct and that a related, criminal investigation into OUR has been closed without action and is dead despite press reports to the contrary.
As Lynn Packer was interviewing the witnesses who claim to have seen and heard multimillionaire Gavin Dixon boast about his “get out of jail free card”, a video that purportedly shows Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes snorting cocaine off a stripper, I began archiving seven years of Lynn Packer’s Rambo Reyes reports from the now unpublished Packerchronicle over to American Crime Journal.
In the article Rambo Reyes & O.U.R.: The Colombian Rescue Mission, Lynn Packer wrote,
“Trying to decipher who actually spearheaded the raid is almost like Abbot and Costello, in their comedy routine, trying to figure out who’s on first. ABC News provided a bit more detail: “The operation was a joint effort between the U.S. government, the Colombian government, and two NGO’s, according to ICE.” From ABC viewers learned that the U.S. and Columbian governments headed the operation as a joint effort with two NGOs or non-governmental organizations: O.U.R. along with Breaking Chains from San Diego“
Within days, a man identifying himself as Steven T. Cass writes to us,
“I am the founder and CEO of Breaking Chains…also Batman in the OUR videos/movies. I have read all your articles on this mess. Not happy that Breaking Chains was brought into it as we are both transparent and I have never taken a salary in 16 yrs..We only have 2 people on salary world wide and they get 500 a month. Anyway some of the inside works like fundraising and Org crap with Tim and team I have no idea on. I am an evangelical so never allowed inside the mormon click side of this. I did however do their first 5 ops…literally alone Tim and the donors arrived 48 hours before day of..but I did all the operation work to set things up myself. I never agreed with bringing in civilians or hollywood peeps...”
The message would go on to talk about drug use and sales, dressing up as Batman, his importance in O.U.R.’s beginning, but his primary issue was “that Breaking Chains was brought into this mess”… or was it?
Over the course of the next two weeks, Cass would go on a harassment crusade in what could be only described as in the image (and eloquence) of his messiah, Donald John “The Baptist” Trump and his prophet, Tucker “the Snowflake” Carlson. While his emails became more erratic, bizarre and incoherent one thing was clear, he wanted recognition. He felt O.U.R. had robbed him. While you may think he is just another anti-First Amendment Evangelist trying to beat Lynn Packer and I into submission, it’s clear his only goal was to sellout O.U.R. by pretending to their ally. The first email was critical of Ballard and Operation Underground Railroad, he takes a swipe at the LDS Church and then begins to “set the record straight”. Over the course of the next two weeks, Cass appeared to devolve and became unhinged, half his emails were critical of Ballard and O.U.R., the other half appeared to be pandering to Ballard himself. Steven would go from threatening criminal and civil “charges” for the single mention of Breaking Chains, down to spewing hate fueled conspiracies and typical Evangelical right-wing white nationalist propaganda.
Steven Cass’s conduct is shameful and disturbing. A growing trend of radicalized individuals who feel as if they have been “left behind” by the system and society. In reality, Steven T. Cass just wasn’t that important nor the focus of our reports. Simply because he wasn’t the focus and O.U.R. “turned greedy and went Hollywood”, he decided to try and extort, harass and attempt to intimidate us. He made it clear his only goal was to “force us to report his word and version of events”, while we bash Ballard and Operation Underground Railroad and make him out to be the honorable god-fearing hero.
Absolutely disgusting.
In one email he is complaining about Catholics and begs for Lynn to “send me your links to stories you have done on let’s say the sexual abuse that is epic in the Catholic church”.
The very next email (which was minutes later), Cass is suffering from “white Christian persecution” or what we call Snowflake. He finishes the message with what only can be interpreted as the “rich Jewish media” conspiracy, “with Zuckerberg and some large “news” orgs get away with it…but they have paid 100’s of millions in damages..when possible Biden will pay Mr. Rittenhouse..Those orgs have staffs of lawyers to protect them from liable. I expect neither of you do and if we bring cases against your for your lies..Bankruptcy is coming.”
Just hours after Cass sent an email fantasizing about President Biden having to pay Kyle Rittenhouse “millions in damages” (which is not how defamation works), both Kyle Rittenhouse and his defense attorney Mark Richards railed against the right-wing, Proud Boys and prominent figures in the GOP, specifically Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar and Donald Trump. The person they criticized and blamed the most for Rittenhouse being associated with the white supremacy and the Proud Boys?
Rittenhouse’s first set of attorneys, L. Lin Wood and John Pierce. L. Lin Wood and Tim Ballard both appeared at several events together this year.
In an interview with Business Insider-
Rittenhouse said he was “set up by my former attorney who was fired because of that, for putting me in situations like that with people I don’t agree with.”
A photo of Rittenhouse with a member of the Proud Boys (a right-wing group) circulated the internet in January 2021, but the 18-year-old says he was unaware of his affiliation and that his former lawyer John Pierce set up the meeting at a Wisconsin bar.
At least three Republican members of Congress have suggested they want Mr Rittenhouse as an intern. North Carolina congressman Madison Cawthorn – who also told his followers to “be armed, be dangerous, and be moral” – offered the teenager an internship via Instagram story.
Arizona congressman Paul Gosar said on Twitter that he would arm-wrestle Florida congressman Matt Gaetz for “dibs” on Mr Rittenhouse as his intern. Mr Gaetz told conservative cable network Newsmax that his office “may reach out to him and see if he’d be interested in helping the country in additional ways”.
“They’re raising money on it and you have all these Republican congressmen saying, ‘Come work for me.’ … They want to trade on his celebrity and I think it’s disgusting,” Mr Richards told Insider.
Former president Donald Trump celebrated his acquittal, and his son Donald Trump Jr tweeted, and then deleted, an offer from a gun rights organisation to send Mr Rittenhouse an AR-15-style rifle, along with a card in “support of Kyle”.
Richards called Trump Jr “an idiot”.
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