In response to high-profile abuse cases, including one involving a North Texas mega-church pastor, the Texas House unanimously approved a bill to ban non-disclosure agreements in sexual assault and human trafficking settlements. Dubbed “Trey’s Law,” the measure received bipartisan support and now heads to the Senate for consideration. NBC 5’s Phil Prazan has more.
A proposal to change Texas law after a North Texas sex assault scandal is halfway through the legislature in Austin. A ban on non-disclosure agreements for sex assault and sex trafficking passed unanimously in the Texas House on Tuesday.
With a row of Democrats and Republicans behind him, Collin County Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, put "Trey's Law" on the floor of the Texas House.
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WATCH HERE“The use of NDAs in settlement agreements is essentially lawful hush money. It is institutional abuse on top of sexual abuse,” said Leach, laying out his bill banning non-disclosure agreements for sex abuse in civil settlements. “We will render them totally void and unenforceable as a matter of law.”
House members passed House Bill 748 unanimously, 149-0. It now heads to the Texas Senate.
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SIGN UP The bill is, in part, a response to Robert Morris, the former Gateway Church pastor who was indicted in Oklahoma earlier this year. He's accused of multiple counts of lewd acts with a child. His accuser was 12 years old at the time. Morris surrendered and pleaded not guilty.
Last year, when news first broke about the Morris case, Leach promised action on Lone Star Politics.
"The response for parents, for policymakers, for Christians, for the church, should be to respond forcefully," he said.
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"Trey's Law" is named after another case, that of Trey Carlock, who committed suicide years after sexual abuse by a summer camp employee. He signed a non-disclosure agreement not to talk about his experience. After his death, his sister, Elizabeth Carlock, was a key advocate for this proposal.
“It’s no exaggeration for me to claim this as a matter of life and death. I think we know what child sexual abuse does to a person’s life, does to a kid,” said Carlock at an earlier public committee hearing on the proposal.
The bill must pass the Texas Senate by the end of May to be signed by the governor and become law.
