Trey's Law


Trey’s Law is an informal name given to legislation passed in Missouri and Texas forbidding the use of non-disclosure agreements in cases of child sexual abuse. Its namesake is Trey Carlock, a Texas man who suffered abuse at the hands of a camp counselor as a youth.

Background

Raymon Byron Carlock III, otherwise known as Trey, was born on September 30, 1990 to R. Byron Carlock II and Laura Carlock. Attending Cistercian Preparatory School and later Highland Park High School in the Dallas area, Carlock was a National Merit Scholar who excelled in sports as a child, including football, tennis, lacrosse, and cross-country.
It was during this period in life he attended Kanakuk Kamps in Branson, Missouri, where he would come into contact with Pete Newman. According to his family, Newman abused Trey from the time he was 7 to the age of 17. Newman would later be convicted of sexually abusing other campers and sentenced to two life terms in prison. Trey would seek legal action against Kanakuk in relation to the abuse, but due to signing a non-disclosure agreement was unable to share his story.
Trey would graduate summa cum laude from Harding University and pursue a career in neuroscience research, holding internships at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Center for BrainHealth. He was also in the process of obtaining a Master’s degree from the University of Texas at Dallas. Yet in spite of these accolades, Trey was never able to heal from the experience he had at Kanakuk. On August 2019, Trey died by suicide.

Legislation

After taking time to grieve Trey’s death, his older sister Elizabeth Phillips began speaking to legislators in Missouri and Texas to change the laws surrounding non-disclosure agreements in child sexual abuse cases. Missouri State Representative Brian Seitz and Senator Brad Hudson supported the legislation, which was passed in both chambers and signed into law by Governor Mike Kehoe on June 10, 2025, making any NDA signed after August 28 of that year unenforceable for claims of child sexual abuse. Meanwhile, in Texas, Representatives Jeff Leach and Morgan Meyer supported the bill with Senator Angela Paxton. Governor Greg Abbott signed the bill into law in June 2025, taking effect on September 1.