House Unanimously Supports Banning NDAs in Child Sex Abuse Cases

      The Missouri House has voted to take away one of the tools sexual predators use to protect themselves, and to be able to find and abuse new victims.  House Bill 709, which was sent to the Senate this week, would bar the enforcement of non-disclosure agreements in cases of child sexual abuse. 

Representative Brian Seitz (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Such legal contracts sometimes come into play in abuse cases, particularly when parents or guardians accept a settlement with an abuser.  These contracts have left victims unable to talk about what they experienced, and their abusers have been enabled to change locations or jobs without anyone knowing what they had done, allowing them to continue their transgressions in new places and against new victims.

      “It’s an injustice and a wrong that we can make right, now,” Representative Brian Seitz (R-Branson) told his colleagues. 

      Seitz is the sponsor of HB 709, the latest version of a proposal he has offered for several years now.  He urged his colleagues to again advance it after other forms of the measure have already received broadly supportive votes across multiple legislative sessions. 

      In this latest bid, Seitz told his fellow legislators, “Through no fault of their own, children and/or the medically disabled who may have been abused in the past are being abused again by the misuse of NDAs in civil settlement agreements.”

“These are legal mechanisms that were created to protect trade secrets, not trauma secrets.  Again I state:  NDAs are wholly appropriate if you’re dealing with manufacturing trade secrets, but they can kill trauma victims,” said Seitz, referring to the fact that some victims have chosen to end their own lives, after an inability to speak out multiplied their anguish.

      Other House members offered strong support.  Columbia Representative David Tyson Smith (D), an attorney for two decades, said to silence a child is one of the worst things a person can do, especially when they have been abused and are too young to make for themselves the decision to agree not to speak about it.

“Non-disclosure agreements, when you deal with children, are basically unethical.  It silences them.  They need the ability to tell their story to heal, and often times when families have their children sign them or they sign them, these predators are allowed to continue operating around the state and nobody can talk about it, so this is a way to stop those Predators from continuing to abuse people and it allows the victims to heal and to tell their stories,” Smith said.

      Representative Rudy Veit (R-Wardsville), another practicing lawyer, told his fellows he has dealt with abuse survivors and seen firsthand the courage it takes for them to acknowledge what they have experienced, even to themselves. 

Representative David Tyson Smith (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      “[It adds] insult to injury, then, to tell them when the case is settled that they have to keep a secret and they live the rest of their lives with that secret, while the pedophiles continue to go about their business and start up somewhere else.  More importantly is at that moment, they may agree to [sign] and keep a non-disclosure, but then what happens is the time goes on they start to think, ‘Could I have done more to prevent others [from being abused],’ and so now they’re living the rest of their life with another guilt feeling that they didn’t do more, and just eliminate that process.”

      Representative Raychel Proudie (D-Ferguson), who focuses much of her legislative efforts on protecting children, also stressed the importance of adding this language to Missouri law.

      “Typically, non-disclosure agreements or NDAs are put forth to protect business interests.  No one should be in the business of hurting children,” Proudie said.  “We should not be protecting the business interests or behaviors of perverts and people who hurt children.”

      709 reaches the Senate with only three weeks remaining in the legislative session, but versions of the proposal are moving in several other forms and on several other bills.  Seitz expressed optimism during the debate, noting that in the Senate as in the House, the bill has received “total, bipartisan support.”

      “I’m advocating for these victims to be able to at least have their voices heard after their innocence has been taken through the criminal actions of others.  This legislation will help them heal, to share their stories, and attempt to come to terms with what happened to them as children,” Seitz said. 

“While 709 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.”

      HB 709 was advanced to the Senate 148-0.

House votes unanimously for child sexual abuse victims to have more time to sue

      A measure to give victims of child sexual abuse more time to sue those responsible for their abuse was given a unanimous vote of support in the House last week.  The bill reached the floor too late to become law this year, but its sponsor hopes that vote will give it momentum for future sessions. 

Representative Brian Seitz (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      In 2018 state law was changed to lift the statute of limitations on criminal prosecution of child sexual abuse, but in civil law a victim of childhood sexual abuse can only sue their abusers until they turn 31 or within three years of discovering that an injury or illness was the result of childhood sexual abuse, whichever occurs later.  House Bill 367 would have extended that age limit to 41, and expand the scope of who can be sued to include anyone who enabled abuse or allowed it to continue, or who created a circumstance in which it could occur.

“Through no fault of their own, children who have been abused in the past are being victimized again by not being allowed to hold their perpetrators to account in civil actions,” said the bill’s sponsor, Representative Brian Seitz (R-Branson)

      He said when the bill was heard by the House Judiciary Committee, people who experienced abuse as children in Missouri came from all over the state and as far away as Florida and Texas, to testify. 

“Many came from my own district to testify to the atrocities committed against them as children but it’s too late for them to face those involved in a civil action because the statute of limitations had run out before they came to terms with their abuse,” said Seitz.  “House Bill 376 cannot stop these past events but will allow for these children, now adults, to call the people – and I use that term loosely – to be held to account, and creates a path for civil actions to benefit the survivors and provide some form of restitution and accountability.”

Seitz refers to abuse that happened at Kanakuk Summer Camp at Branson, which in 2010 resulted in a former counselor there receiving two life sentences in Missouri prison.

      “I bring forward House Bill 367 to the House Floor for Evan; for Elizabeth, whose brother, Trey, committed suicide in 2019 because of the abuse; for Keith; for Jody; for Jessica; and for Ashton.”

      The House voted 150-0 for the bill’s perfection, or initial passage, which normally would be one step in the process toward it being sent to the Senate.  In this case, said Seitz, it is a symbolic vote and one he hopes will lead to this change in Missouri law eventually being made.

      One of the bill’s co-sponsors, Representative Raychel Proudie (D-Ferguson), called the bill, “incredible.  It is one of the proudest things I’ve been able to look at this year … this is probably the best bill we’re going to hear on this floor this year.  I ask the body’s unanimous support.”

      With this year’s session ending on Friday, Seitz plans to pre-file the language of HB 367 again for the 2024 legislative session.