“Trey’s Law,” legislation intended to release sexual abuse survivors from nondisclosure agreements, was adopted unanimously by the Missouri House of Representatives April 22. A similar bill is pending in the state Senate.
Rep. Brian Seitz filed the bill, HB-709, to prohibit the misuse of nondisclosure agreements against child sexual abuse and trafficking victims in civil settlement agreements. A similar bill is pending in the Texas Legislature.
The legislation has been named “Trey’s Law” in memory of Trey Carlock, who died by suicide in 2019 after being groomed and abused by convicted sex offender and former Kanakuk director Pete Newman. Having signed an NDA as part of a settlement agreement after the abuse was exposed, Carlock was unable to discuss his abuse with others in ways that may have promoted healing.
His older sister, Elizabeth Carlock Phillips, is a crime victim advocate and has testified that her late brother was silenced to his grave by a restrictive NDA following a retraumatizing civil litigation process with Kanakuk and its insurers.
“He hesitated to tell his story even in confidential, therapeutic settings, for fear that Kanakuk would come after him again.”
“It’s no exaggeration for me to claim this is a matter of life and death,” Phillips testified at a Feb. 26 hearing on the bill. “When I say that my brother was silenced to his grave, I mean he was literally scared to death. He hesitated to tell his story even in confidential, therapeutic settings, for fear that Kanakuk would come after him again like they did an earlier John Doe.”
Several victims of child sexual abuse at Kanakuk Kamps, a summer camp ministry based in Seitz’s district, previously testified in support of Trey’s Law. A public petition launched in March 2021 protesting Kanakuk’s use of NDAs to silence child sexual abuse victims has gained 27,000 signatures to date.
Addressing the house floor last Wednesday, Seitz told colleagues, “It’s incumbent upon us to help in every way possible.”
He said NDAs “are legal mechanisms that were created to protect trade secrets, not trauma secrets.” When used in cases of child sexual abuse and other sex crimes he said, “they can kill trauma victims.”
Seven other representatives from both parties spoke in favor of the bill during the debate process, including Rep. Tonya Rush, who disclosed her own experiences of abuse on the House floor: “This is the first time that this has come out of my mouth. I have never repeated this to anyone, not my mom, not my dad, nobody. I don’t think any child should be silenced at all.”
Missouri Sen. Brad Hudson has championed the companion bill, SB-590, that was passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee and has been added as an amendment to other complementary Senate bills.
A similar bill, HB-748, passed the Texas House of Representatives unanimously last Tuesday. This immediately followed the release of a New York Times article highlighting NDA and civil statute of limitations reform efforts in Missouri and Texas for survivors of childhood crimes.
“Truth is in the interest of public safety,” Seitz said while promoting the bill in Missouri. “I’m advocating for these victims to be able to at least have their voices heard after their innocence has been taken by the criminal actions of others.”
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