A bill to stop the use of nondisclosure agreements to prevent sexual abuse victims from telling their stories has advanced in the Texas legislature.
On March 19, the Texas House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence voted unanimously to report House Bill 748 favorably to the full House of Representatives and recommend passage.
The bill, authored by Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Plano), is called “Trey’s Law” after Trey Carlock, a sexual abuse victim of Kanakuk Kamps’ employee Peter Newman. Carlock died by suicide after suffering in silence due to an NDA.
His sister Elizabeth Carlock Phillips spoke to the committee in support of the bill, sharing how her brother endured a decade of abuse, then signed a restrictive NDA that caused him to even question whether he should discuss details of his abuse with his therapist.
“They will always control me,” Phillips said her brother believed about his abuser and those who protected Newman.
