The bill, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Brian Seitz from Branson, now heads to the Missouri Senate.
Non-disclosure agreements are “legal mechanisms that were created to protect trade secrets, not trauma secrets,” Seitz said last week during House debate.
“We must clarify the law on use of the NDAs in civil child sexual abuse settlements, so that survivors of such horrors who already feel shamed and silenced are also not legally silenced and intimidated,” Seitz said.
Seitz called NDAs “an injustice and a wrong that we can make right now.”
The legislation applies to any legal action starting Aug. 28 of this year, when the law would take effect. It makes NDAs in childhood sexual abuse cases unenforceable.
Seitz said while the bill “cannot fix the horrific events leading up to signing an NDA, it can prevent the silencing of child crime victims in the future, and would certainly make Missouri safer for all.”
State Rep. Raychel Proudie, a Democrat from Ferguson, said Tuesday: “We should not be protecting the business interests of perverts, of people who hurt children.”
The bill has been called “Trey’s Law,” referring to the late Trey Carlock, who died by suicide in 2019 after being sexually abused by Pete Newman at the Branson-based Kanakuk Kamps.
Trey’s sister, Elizabeth Carlock, said at a hearing on the bill in February that he had to agree to an NDA as a condition of his settlement with the camp.
“Trey told someone just before his death that they’ll always control me and I’ll never be free,” Carlock said in February, “…A lot of truth dies with people because of NDAs, and that only protects bad actors, which is contrary to public interest.”
Texas is also aiming to ban NDAs in child sexual abuse cases this session. Tennessee enacted similar legislation in 2018.
“Silence actually kills, as my family knows,” Carlock told lawmakers. “It endangers the public. This practice is nothing short of evil, and it only protects darkness.”
Kanakuk director Pete Newman pleaded guilty in 2010 to seven counts of sexual abuse, and the prosecutor said Newman’s victim count might be in the hundreds. Newman is currently serving two life sentences plus 30 years in prison.
Kanakuk leadership maintains that they had no advanced knowledge of his behavior, and Newman was a “master of deception.”
Keith Dygert, who was also abused by Newman, reached a settlement with a non-disclosure agreement, he testified in February. But only after signing it did he learn more from news articles about the extent of Newman’s abuse and Kanakuk’s potential knowledge, he said.
Dygert said NDAs have “undeniably prevented proper and timely healing…by silencing victims when sharing their stories in their own time, in their own way.”
He said it was worth his taking the risk of breaking his NDA to speak out.
“When victims are silenced, the truth is also silenced, and the institutions that helped enable child sexual abuse are protected,” Dygert said.
No one testified in opposition.
State Rep. Rudy Veit, a Republican from Wardsville, said in February’s hearing: “I believe that NDAs serve a very useful purpose in some situations, but in this situation, I can see that there’s really no advantage other than to the perpetrator.”
Similar legislation in the Missouri Senate passed out of committee earlier this month but hasn’t been debated by the full chamber. No one testified in opposition in the Senate hearing, and only state Sen. Steve Roberts, a Democrat from St. Louis, voted against the measure.
Seitz is also pushing legislation to extend the statute of limitations for survivors of childhood sex abuse. That legislation, attached to a broader bill about statutes of limitations, passed out of the House in February and Senate committee this month. It is awaiting consideration by the full Senate.