Following a hearing in early March where Kanakuk abuse survivors, their families and other activists spoke in front of a Judiciary Committee at the Missouri House of Representatives about nondisclosure agreements, “Trey’s Law” continues to make its way through the state legislature. A similar bill also is beginning to make headway in Texas after a Wednesday hearing where more survivors testified in front of the Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee at the Texas House of Representatives.
Trey’s Law calls for an amendment to state laws surrounding the use of NDAs in child sexual abuse cases. If passed, it would make NDAs signed by survivors of child sexual abuse void in later attempts to seek civil claims against their abusers.
Trey Carlock
In Missouri hearings, where the law is labeled HB-709, survivors and their families called the issue a “matter of life and death” for survivors like Trey Carlock and 16 other survivors of abuse at Kanakuk camps who have died by suicide following experiences of abuse they were unable to speak about due to restrictive NDAs.
Trey’s Law also was added as an amendment to SB-43 on Tuesday of last week, a bill sponsored by Sen. Travis Fitzwater to modify various provisions relating to child protection. Trey’s Law was added to the legislation by Sen. Brad Hudson, and the bill passed in the Missouri Senate by a vote of 31 to 2.
As survivors, their families and other activists continue to remind lawmakers of these facts, Trey’s Law makes its way through the Missouri legislature with little opposition. HB-709 was unanimously voted “do pass” by the House Judiciary Committee and now awaits approval by the House Rules Committee.
A similar bill also is making headway in Texas, Trey’s home state, where it is labeled HB-748 and sponsored by Rep. Jeff Leach. The bill passed unanimously out of the Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee on Wednesday, just after being introduced.
Texas also is the home of Robert Morris, former megachurch pastor and previous adviser to Donald Trump, who recently was indicted on five felony accounts of lewd or indecent acts to a child against the then 12-year-old survivor, Cindy Clemishire.
On Monday morning, Morris turned himself in to the Osage County Sheriff’s Office in Oklahoma, although he posted a $50,000 bond just 14 minutes later and was released. He will appear in court for the first time May 9, where his attorney plans to plea “not guilty” on his behalf.
“When you take someone’s voice away, especially a child’s, you take away their most linear path to healing.”
Trey’s sister, Elizabeth Carlock Phillips, as well as Clemishire, testified before the Texas House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday in favor of Trey’s Law.
“When you take someone’s voice away, especially a child’s, you take away their most linear path to healing,” Phillips said in her testimony. “I am proud to be Trey’s sister. And I hope Texas will be proud of Trey’s Law”
Clemishire recalled for the committee her previous refusal to sign an NDA, and how that choice ultimately led to her voice making a difference. “Because I refused to sign that document giving up the right to freely speak about events in my life, last Wednesday … almost 43 years after my abuse began, Robert Morris was indicted.”
She reflected that after the abuse took place, “As I began the lifelong journey to sort through these emotional challenges, my life seemed to attract more shame. While Robert’s attracted more fame.” This fame would have only grown bigger had she been restricted from telling the story of how her faith leader abused her and got away with it, she said.
They also testified alongside Kathryn Robb, director of the Children’s Justice Campaign.
Robb concluded her testimony by explaining how NDAs are useful in some legal contexts but can be lethal in child sexual abuse cases: “We are talking about covering up secrets about the rape of children. … If we allow our bodies of leaders to allow them to be covered up, then the children of Texas are no longer safe. I have never seen a secret that benefits a child.”
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