BILL WOULD STRIP PROTECTIONS FROM CHILD ABUSERS
(AUSTIN) — Child abusers, and the organizations that protect them, would no longer be able to hide their crimes behind settlement agreements under measures considered Thursday by the Senate State Affairs Committee. Bill author and McKinney Senator Angela Paxton said that abusers intentionally choose to work within trusted organizations - churches, youth programs, schools - in order to cloak themselves in the trust of those organizations as well as to find more victims. When those victims seek civil remedy to these crimes, settlement suits can include non-disclosure agreements which prevent survivors from sharing their stories, which only helps these abusers continue their crimes. More than that, it stands in the way of healing for their victims. “Telling the story is central, essential to the healing journey of victims of child sexual abuse,” said Paxton. “The decision of how, or when, or where, or with whom to share that story should be the decision of the survivor, not the decision of the abuser.” Her bill, SB 835 and its House companion, HB 748 by Plano Representative Jeff Leach, would eliminate the use of NDAs to cover up sexual abuse.
McKinney Senator Angela Paxton’s bill would not allow non-disclosure agreements in civil settlements to cover up child sex abuse.
The bills differ in one key regard. The Senate version only applies to crimes against minors, while the House version would apply to all victims of sexual abuse, regardless of age. Elizabeth Phillips, testifying before the committee, said that she preferred whichever version would get to the desk of Governor Greg Abbott faster. She appeared in memory of her brother, Trey Carlock, who took his own life in 2019 at the age of 28 after being unable to come to terms with the abuse he suffered at the hands of a religious camp employee over the course of a decade. In 2023, Trey filed suit against the camp where he was victimized, and the settlement agreement included a strict non-disclosure clause. “Sadly, a lot of truth dies with people because of NDAs,” Phillips told members. “That only protects bad actors.” The terms were so strict, said Phillips, that she learned more about his abuse after his death than when he was alive. “Trey told a therapist, ‘they will always control me, and I’ll never be free,’ before he died by suicide in August 2019,” she said. Though the camp was eventually exposed in the media and the abuser convicted to three life sentences, Phillips said there are still too many victims who are silenced under settlement terms. “Now that I know what I know, I’m trying to be a voice for Trey, and countless other victims of sexual abuse and trafficking, who are suffering in the shadows due to NDAs that restrict them from speaking in settings like this,” she said. “If they could be here to testify without the threat of legal repercussions, there would be a line out the door.”
The Senate version of the bill would prohibit the use of non-disclosure agreements in legal settlements to cover a range of criminal sexual acts against children. It is named “Trey’s Law” after Trey Carlock.
When Cindy Clemishire tried to seek restitution at the age of 37 for abuse she suffered at the hands of Robert Morris, a trusted pastor and family friend, when she was 12, she was offered a small settlement as long as she agreed to never speak about what happened to her. She refused. “Had I agreed to that NDA, Robert would’ve continued to have power over me,” Clemishire testified. “Instead, I kept telling people, I kept seeking truth – and I kept healing.” It has allowed her, she said, at the age of 55 to continue to tell her story in an effort to help others and to seek accountability for the man who abused her. He was recently indicted by an Oklahoma grand jury on charges of lewd behavior with a minor. “This is what happens when survivors are not silenced,” she told members. “NDAs may be presented as legal formalities, but in cases like mine, they are tools that continue the abuse. They protect the abuser and keep victims in shame.”
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