A bill to stop the use of nondisclosure agreements to prevent sexual abuse victims from telling their stories has advanced in the Texas legislature. On March 19, the Texas House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence voted unanimously to report House Bill 748 favorably to the full House of Representatives and recommend passage. The bill, authored by Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Plano), is called “Trey’s Law” after Trey Carlock, a sexual abuse victim of Kanakuk Kamps’ employee Peter Newman. Carlock died by suicide after suffering in silence due to an NDA. His sister Elizabeth Carlock Phillips spoke to...

A group of women from across the country have joined a "club" they never wanted to belong to, nor did they ask to join. They are survivors of childhood sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated by International House of Prayer founder Mike Bickle and members of his staff. They say the systematic grooming and abuse spans decades and includes dozens of women and men. IHOPKC abuse survivor, known as Gracia, says, "Over 100 women have confided in me, sharing firsthand accounts of rampant sexual abuse at IHOPKC and the systemic cover-ups that enabled it." They, along with other...

One by one, the speakers walked up to the small table early Wednesday, then sat and faced the panel of lawmakers in front of them. Several came from across the country — Michigan, Minnesota, Tennessee and Texas. For some, it was their first time in the Missouri Capitol building. They came to testify in support of two bills under consideration by Missouri lawmakers dealing with child sexual abuse. One would eliminate the statute of limitations in lawsuits involving child sex abuse. The other would prohibit the use of non-disclosure agreements in child sex abuse settlements. But the...

In August 2019, my little brother’s obituary was published in The Dallas Morning News. My family decided to mention he was a Kanakuk Kamps abuse survivor at the end of the obit. But, the truth is, he didn’t survive. Trey was a child sexual abuse victim silenced to his grave by Kanakuk Ministries, a summer camp conglomerate based in southwest Missouri popular among Texans. I used to refer to him as a “survivor,” but he didn’t survive, so now I refer to him as a victim, and I’m trying my best to be his voice. Trey endured a decade...

A nondisclosure agreement could have kept Cindy Clemishire from speaking out against former North Texas pastor Robert Morris. 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...

Cindy Clemishire, the Oklahoma woman who accused Gateway Church founding pastor Robert Morris of sexually abusing her starting when she was 12 in the ‘80s, leading to his indictment last week, testified before a Texas House committee about the alleged abuse. Clemishire testified in front of the Texas House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence in support of House Bill 748, which would make certain nondisclosure agreements in child sex abuse cases unenforceable. The bill was authored by State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano.

Last week, Christian County judge Jessica L. Kruse ruled against motions made by Kanakuk Kamps and ACE Insurance Co. in a fraud case filed against them by sexual abuse survivor Andrew Summersett. Despite their arguments that Summersett’s claim was filed after the statute of limitations, the case will proceed. Summersett is suing Kanakuk, ACE and other individual parties for fraudulent concealment and civil conspiracy related to sexual abuse he experienced as a child at the hands of Kanakuk camp counselor Pete Newman. Newman was a serial offender during his tenure at Kanakuk and is currently serving two life sentences...

Lawsuit alleges Kanakuk Ministries and ACE American Insurance Company lied to conceal former director’s abuse Attorneys argued about culpability in Christian County Circuit Court Monday morning in a lawsuit involving a Branson-area Christian summer camp accused of conspiring with its insurer to trick a family into signing a non-disclosure agreement by concealing prior knowledge of sexual misconduct. Logan Yandell, a survivor of sexual abuse by Kanakuk Ministries’ former camp director, filed a lawsuit in 2022 alleging misstatements by the camp’s CEO led his parents to sign a settlement and non-disclosure agreement for $250,000 that they otherwise would have...

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Ken Tipton, a filmmaker and survivor of child sexual abuse, is raising awareness of the ongoing delays affecting over 82,000 sexual abuse claims against the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) through his GoFundMe campaignand upcoming film project "LOST VALLEY". The campaign aims to highlight the persistent emotional and financial impact these delays have on survivors.

Woman who accused Gateway Church founder of sexual abuse says recovery has been ‘lifelong’ A woman who says she was sexually abused by Pastor Robert Morris as a teen is finally living without shame. Cindy Clemishire still has the Christmas gift her grandmother gave her when she was 12. The white fur parka with a poofy hood and shiny pink lining hung in her parents’ closet for decades. The day she got the coat, Clemishire says, Robert Morris began sexually abusing her. She says the abuse lasted four and a half years. Now 54 and living...