Texas House panel advances 'Trey's Law' to ban NDAs in sex abuse settlements

Cindy Clemishire was 12 years old when a traveling evangelist began to sexually abuse her in the 1980s. He made her promise not to tell anyone about it.

“The first time he made the premeditated decision to violate and defile my purity, he told me … 'You can never tell anyone, because it will ruin everything,’” Clemishire recounted to a Texas House panel Wednesday morning as the lawmakers heard testimony for a bill proposing to ban nondisclosure agreements in sex abuse cases.

Robert Morris, a former spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump who in North Texas founded one of the largest and most influential megachurches in the U.S., was 20 years old in 1982, when Clemishire alleges the abuse began while he stayed at her family's home in Oklahoma.

Eighteen years ago, Morris again tried to silence Clemishire, she said. During negotiations over a civil settlement in 2007, Morris’ attorney offered Clemishire $25,000 in exchange for signing a nondisclosure agreement prohibiting her from speaking out about the abuse that allegedly took place over five years. She refused.

On Monday, Morris, 63, turned himself in to Oklahoma authorities after a grand jury indicted him last week on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child stemming from Clemishire's case.

“My abuser is finally being held accountable for the horrific crimes he committed against me as a child because I refused to sign the NDA,” Clemishire said.

But Trey Carlock, who was 28 when he died by suicide in 2019, did not refuse to sign his abuser's NDA, and it destroyed him, his sister testified Wednesday to the Texas House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence committee.

Carlock suffered 10 years of abuse at the hands of serial pedophile Pete Newman, who was found guilty of molesting at least 57 victims while he was a counselor at Kanakuk Kamps in Branson, Mo. The lingering trauma left Carlock without a lifeline, ultimately leading to his death, his sister said.

Newman was handed two life sentences plus 30 years for abusing six boys at the Christian camp. He was denied parole in October.

Elizbeth Phillips, Carlock’s older sister, told the committee that her brother was “silenced to his grave” by Kanakuk’s restrictive NDA.

“My brother referred to his settlement as ‘blood money,’ as if he had betrayed his own soul to keep Kanakuk’s secrets — and it killed him,” Phillips said.

House Bill 748 by Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano — named “Trey’s Law” in Carlock’s memory — would render nondisclosure or confidentiality agreements unenforceable if they relate to cases of sexual abuse. In a rare move for the Texas House, the bill passed unanimously out of the Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee on the same day it was introduced.

“The law on NDAs must be clarified, because we cannot trust institutions to do the right thing,” Phillips said. “It's no exaggeration for me to claim this as a matter of life and death.”

Rep. Mitch Little is a co-author of the bill and was invited to testify Wednesday. The freshman Republican lawmaker from Lewisville is an attorney who has often represented sex abuse victims during the civil mediation process. He said NDAs can help perpetuate a cycle of abuse.

“They're faced with the decision of whether to settle their case, to receive some sum of money that is going to help them with their lifetime of therapy and counseling, to help them heal, to compensate them for the ‘soul murder,’” Little said. “There's a nondisclosure agreement, and then that pastor, teacher, volunteer moves on to another church, and they continue their acts of abuse.”

The bill’s author said it’s the Legislature’s job to stand with victims and against their abusers. Outlawing NDAs in sex abuse cases will signify that the state backs victims like Carlock and Clemishire, he said.

“We have a duty to protect victims. No victim who chooses to tell their story or to speak out about their experience should ever be silenced,” Leach said.

“You either stand with victims or you stand with people who harm them. There is no middle ground," he said. "So it's time for Texans to pick a side, and as for me and this committee, and I believe this Legislature, we are going to boldly and firmly and strongly stand with victims.”