About nine months after a bill banning nondisclosure agreements in child sex abuse cases was signed into law in Texas, a version of the bill, which was championed by a Park Cities native, has been filed at the federal level.
The legislation was signed into law in Texas in June and a version is also in effect in Missouri. The Alabama legislature passed a version of the bill in February and versions of the bill have also been filed in Kentucky, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Kansas.
The bipartisan bill, called the Terminating Restrictive Enforcement of Youth Settlements (TREY’S Law) was introduced federally this week by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who were joined by Sens. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).
The bill is named for Trey Carlock, who grew up in the Park Cities. Trey’s sister, Elizabeth Phillips, testified during a hearing on the bill that her brother was abused from age 7 to 17 by a former staffer at a Christian summer camp based in southwest Missouri. Phillips further said that her brother was prevented from speaking out about the alleged abuse by a nondisclosure agreement. Trey ultimately died by suicide at the age of 28 in 2019.
“TREY’S Law doesn’t just protect future victims; it restores the voices of those silenced by existing NDAs. This bill’s passage will say to every survivor currently living under a gag order: ‘Your voice is yours again. You are free to speak about what happened to you. And what you have to say matters,” Phillips said in a statement.
“We are proud that versions of Trey’s Law have been passed by five states and filed in seven other jurisdictions this year – with momentum growing in D.C. now, too,” she added.
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Cruz said in a statement that NDAs “are too often used to protect abusers, with incalculable and catastrophic consequences for their victims.”
“No child who has endured sexual abuse should be forced to carry that horror in silence. Non-disclosure agreements are too often used to protect abusers, with incalculable and catastrophic consequences for their victims. We owe it to Trey to ensure that victims have the right to speak about their experiences and that contracts are not used to silence survivors,” he added.
