AUSTIN, Texas (KXXV) — A proposed Texas bill that would render non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in child sexual abuse (CSA) cases void and unenforceable has passed unanimously in the Texas House and now awaits a hearing in the Senate.
If passed, the bill will be known as “Trey’s Law,” named in memory of Trey Carlock, a Dallas native and CSA survivor who died by suicide after a re-traumatizing civil litigation process involving Kanakuk Ministries. The bill would prohibit the enforcement of NDAs that prevent survivors from disclosing facts—including the identity of their abuser—during or after an investigation related to a settlement.
“This legislation is meant to notify abusers and the institutions that protect them that silence is no longer for sale in Texas,” said Rep. Mitch Little, one of the bill’s co-sponsors.
The bill’s author, Rep. Jeff Leach, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, quoted Elizabeth Carlock Phillips, Carlock’s sister and a victim advocate: “The use of NDAs in settlement agreements is essentially lawful hush money. It is institutional abuse on top of sexual abuse.”
Trey’s Law is set to take effect Sept. 1 if passed by the Senate.
Pete Newman, a long-time director at the Branson, Missouri-based Christian sports camp Kanakuk Ministries, sexually abused Carlock. Despite mounting evidence, the organization used legal settlements that included restrictive NDAs, shielding Newman’s actions and the organization’s knowledge of his abuse. Carlock was required to file suit by age 23 under Texas’ statute of limitations but was forced into silence through legal agreements.
Before his death, Carlock told a therapist, “They will always control me, and I’ll never be free.”
