NASHVILLE (TN)
Tennessean [Nashville TN]
June 5, 2026
By Angele Latham, Nashville Tennessean
For over 10 years, a TN mom was silenced by an NDA signed after her child’s sexual abuse case at a Brentwood church. A new ruling changed that — and might give other victims their voices back.
Key Points
- A 2018 state law banned nondisclosure agreements from applying to cases of child sexual abuse. The law was largely forgotten, and no court case referenced it — until recently.
- A significant Williamson County court case that finalized recently ruled that the law also applies to NDAs signed before the law went into effect.
- The ruling gives a voice back to a Brentwood mom who has been silent for over 10 years following the alleged sexual abuse of her child at a local church — and could empower other victims to speak out.
This story contains references to sexual abuse including sexual abuse against children. The Sexual Assault Center provides free counseling, advocate services and forensic exams at their SAFE Clinic for anyone. To reach the 24/7 crisis line, please call the Sexual Assault Center at 1-800-879-1999 or contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. In addition, Our Kids, a Nashville-based nonprofit, provides free medical evaluations and crisis counseling for concerns of child sexual abuse. If you need help, call 615-341-4911.
A historic Williamson County court case has ruled that nondisclosure agreements signed as a part of legal settlements cannot apply to child sex abuse allegations.
The ruling settled the question of whether a 2018 state law that banned the use of NDAs on child sexual abuse allegations could apply to cases settled before the law was created.
One Brentwood mother said the decision’s impact feels like getting her voice back.
“If people did bad things, and it was harmful to people… people need to know,” said Jane, the name by which she has been identified in some court documents. The Tennessean generally does not identify victims of sexual assault. Naming Jane could identify her child.
Jane and her husband settled a lawsuit in 2016 regarding the alleged sexual abuse of her then toddler by a volunteer at Fellowship Bible Church. The couple signed an NDA as part of the settlement. Until now, the NDA has precluded them from discussing the abuse allegations.
The new ruling lifts the NDA from discussions regarding the alleged abuse, but other details including the settlement terms remain under seal.
The case began in 2014 after Jane’s toddler was left in the care of a church Sunday school volunteer who would later be convicted of the aggravated sexual battery of another child, according to court documents. Troubled by some of her then 3-year-old’s behaviors, Jane and her husband sought medical help. Experts agreed there were indications that Jane’s child had been sexually abused, court documents show.
After filing in 2015 settling in 2016, Jane reopened the case in 2023 with First Amendment attorney Daniel Horwitz. He pushed for the use of the 2018 state law to make the portions of the NDA blocking her from speaking about the abuse unenforceable.
“If something seriously bad is happening, any person who is a witness to that needs to be able to do whatever they can in their capacity to make it right,” Jane said.
The judge ruled that the 2018 law applies to all NDAs signed in Tennessee, even those signed before the law was passed.
The ruling is the first of its kind in the state. It does not technically void all NDAs across the state automatically, since it was decided in a lower court. The decision does create a significant stepping stone for victims across the state to similarly argue for their right to speak about abuse cases.
The impact of the ruling could be significant.
Stefan Turkheimer, vice president of public policy at the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), celebrated the court ruling, saying it “allows(s) the truth to be heard.”
“Survivors of sexual assault should not be silenced,” said Turkheimer. “It pushes abuse into the shadows, where it’s harder to heal and recover. The only one who benefits from silence is the perpetrator.”
Due to the nature of NDAs, it is unknown just how many are signed across the state every year to conceal child sex abuse. But amid increasing national scrutiny towards child sex abuse as a result of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation and high-profile cases of sex abuse in church ministries, the issue is gaining attention across the country.
A recently filed bipartisan congressional bill, the Terminating Restrictive Enforcement of Youth Settlements (TREY’S Law), would end the use of NDAs in cases of child sexual abuse nationwide.
The bill is named in honor of Trey Carlock, a Texas resident who was “silenced by an NDA after enduring a retraumatizing civil litigation process” against a Texas Christian ministry in 2010, according to a joint congressional news release about the bill. Carlock died by suicide at age 28.
Perpetrators “try to silence child sexual abuse survivors” through NDAs, said Turkheimer, in a news release about the bill.
“The justice system shouldn’t do the same thing,” he said. “Trey’s Law will allow survivors’ voices to be heard and hold abusers accountable, and we at RAINN are proud to support it.”
Apart from a brief re-litigation in 2017 to allow for more law enforcement cooperation, Jane was unable to speak about the case due to the NDA, until this ruling. She now hopes her advocacy will help prevent outcomes like her child’s and Carlock’s and will empower others to speak out.
“I read the Bible, I know what it says the rules and responsibilities of the church are,” she said. “It’s to protect the sheep. To lay down their lives for the sheep. I feel like, in a way, I have stepped into a place that the shepherds of the church should have done in the first place.”
‘The gospel was turned on its head.’
Jane met with The Tennessean recently at a West Nashville coffee shop.
Amid the gentle clinks of coffee cups and the low hum of a breakfast rush, Jane slung a heavy backpack off her petite frame. Inside were stacks of notebooks and case files.
“I write everything down,” she said. “It’s so hard to keep it all straight. I feel like this has taken my memory away.”
Between the pages of the notebooks were the typical detritus of motherhood: homework notes, grocery lists and doodles. Written between them in sharp pen were case notes.
Meetings with church leadership. Therapist notes. Medical appointments and details for a child far too young to understand what was happening.
For Jane, the literal physical and mental load she’s been carrying has become second nature over the past 11 years.
According to court documents, the Sunday school volunteer in Jane’s child’s class, 14 at the time, pleaded guilty to the aggravated sexual battery of another 3-year-old after the abuse was uncovered in August 2014. The records for that case, including the 14-year-old’s name, were sealed, a common legal practice for cases involving offenders who are minors.
A $37.5 million lawsuit filed by the parents of that 3-year old child was resolved in December 2015 and similarly sealed, according to court documents.
Jane and other families with children in the same Sunday school classes were not informed of the crime until the following year, according to court documents, which the church described only as “an incident of sexual nature between two juveniles.”
After learning of the 2014 incident and realizing that her child had spent unsupervised time with the now-convicted volunteer every week for approximately a year, Jane began connecting the dots between some of her child’s troubling behaviors, medical issues and developmental delays.
According to court documents, medical and psychological experts concluded that there was indication that Jane’s child had been a victim of sexual abuse.
“I lost my mind,” she told The Tennessean. “I was so horrified.”
In a statement, church leaders told The Tennessean said they “want to make clear” that both the 2014 case, and the allegations surrounding Jane’s child, were “thoroughly investigated by our church, the Brentwood Police Department, and the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services.”
“Given there were no findings from (BPD or TDCS), all parties, including both parents, agreed that it was in the best interest of their child for the matter to remain sealed and confidential,” the statement said. “We respect the family’s privacy and will continue to do all we can to honor them in this matter.”
Jane told The Tennessean she is not aware of her child being involved in any investigation pertaining to the 2014 incident.
The pastor of the church at the time of Jane’s case is no longer at the church, having left around the time Jane settled.
Tennessee law passes — with little attention
A few miles and two years removed from Jane’s 2016 settlement, a round of applause echoed through the Tennessee Senate halls as lawmakers voted almost unanimously to pass Senate Bill 2426 on April 23, 2018.
The bill banned settlement agreements relating to child sexual abuse from having provisions that “conceal details” of the abuse.
Its vote was a rare instance of bipartisan enthusiasm in the General Assembly. But the law was not cited in a single court case until Jane became aware of it. In 2023, she reached out to Horwitz.
“We’ve been through a lot on this case,” said Horwitz. “In Tennessee and elsewhere, lots of people for many, many years have been engaged in what I think are appropriately characterized as efforts to cover up. (Jane) is not happy about it, and she wants to make sure that people know they have the right to speak out.”
Horwitz was shocked that the 2018 law had not been referenced earlier.
“I wonder if people even knew about it,” Horwitz said. “Because it’s the sort of thing that I expect certain institutional interests would have had a real problem with and would have been very eager to prevent from becoming law. But it becomes law and it just sits. Nothing happens with it. It never seems to come up or get cited anywhere.”
Jane and Horwitz filed on Dec. 18, 2023.
“We spent basically two full years litigating that question — does this law protect people who signed settlement agreements before the statute was enacted?” Horwitz said.
The ruling, delivered in December 2025 and finalized in February 2026, was a clear yes.
“It is evident the General Assembly has made any confidentiality provision that prevents the disclosure of details pertaining to sexual abuse null and void in Tennessee,” Judge Joseph Woodruff stated in the ruling, adding that is “without regard for when the settlement was entered.”
The ruling itself is not necessarily precedential, Horwitz said. It doesn’t automatically void other NDAs, because it was ruled in a lower court. But the ruling is the most decisive nod towards lifting such NDAs that the state has seen yet, and could be cited by other victims to lift their own NDAs.
If a future appellate court ruling cited this case and affirmed the same answer, then “basically, any confidentiality provision in a Tennessee settlement agreement that conceals an allegation of child sexual abuse is unenforceable under Tennessee law, no matter when it was signed,” Horwitz said.
The implications of this ruling are significant, he said.
“Institutions like the Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention and others have hundreds and hundreds of these agreements dating back decades that are now vulnerable,” Horwitz said. “Laws like Tennessee’s are the beginning of a statutory sea change that will empower abuse victims to reclaim their free speech rights and speak out without fear of liability going forward.”
Jane pushes for better treatment of victims, on state and national level
According to Jane, her child, who is now in grade school, is doing better. After extensive therapy, the child no longer struggles with developmental issues and is involved in a number of school activities.
Jane still retains her Christian faith, she says, though she changed churches and continues to grapple with trust.
“I feel like the gospel was turned on its head,” she said. “They were supposed to be the people I could trust. They’re supposed to be the shepherds!”
Throughout the case, Jane has pushed for better communication from church officials and law enforcement.
“I feel like because people involved knew there’d be a confidentiality agreement, they felt empowered to do whatever they wanted and (not follow through),” she said. “What made it so comfortable for people to violate so many legal and ethical boundaries?”
When asked by The Tennessean whether any policies regarding parental notification had changed, or any training for staff was increased following the cases, leadership at the church stated that the “safety and security of our congregation is paramount.”
“We regularly review and update our policies and procedures to protect the children in our care,” read the statement. “These include mandatory background checks for staff and volunteers, a two-adult rule to ensure no adult is ever alone with a child, trained security personnel who monitor the facility whenever children’s programming is taking place, and many other safeguards.”
Jane has attended hearings in Washington D.C. to advocate for Trey’s Law.
“No child who has endured sexual abuse should be forced to carry that horror in silence,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, co-sponsor of the bill, in a statement announcing the filing of Trey’s Law. “Non-disclosure agreements are too often used to protect abusers, with incalculable and catastrophic consequences for their victims. We owe it to Trey to ensure that victims have the right to speak about their experiences and that contracts are not used to silence survivors. I’m grateful to my colleagues for joining me in introducing this bipartisan bill, and I’m committed to seeing it advanced expeditiously.”
Only six states currently have laws similar to Tennessee’s.
To her interview, Jane brought a large stack of grief counseling books and faith-centric trauma guides, which are heavily thumbed through, bookmarked, underlined, and wrinkled from use.
In one book, she underlined a passage by author Judith Lewis Herman, which read “Secrecy and silence are the perpetrator’s first line of defense.”
“When the victim is already devalued (a woman, a child), she may find that the most traumatic events of her life take place outside the realm of socially validated reality.
“Her experience,” the passage went on, “becomes unspeakable.”
“My lawsuit was to be able to speak about (my family’s) abuse,” Jane said. “And I gained that…I want others to have that too.”
The USA TODAY Network – The South region’s coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners.