Sex abuse allegation disclosure bill passes

Texas lawmakers have passed a bill that would allow nonprofits and churches to share information about sex abuse allegations against former employees without becoming vulnerable to lawsuits.

House Bill 4345, sponsored by McKinney Republican Scott Sanford, is headed to the desk of Gov. Greg Abbott after approval by the Texas Senate and House of Representatives.

Sanford proposed the bill weeks after a Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News investigation that found more than 380 Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers had abused some 700 children in the last two decades.

In some of those cases, the newspapers found, predators were able to find new jobs — and victims — because their previous employers did not disclose allegations for fear of being sued.

Sanford, who is also a Southern Baptist minister, said the bill would help prevent predators from moving into unsuspecting congregations.

“Employers shouldn’t fear litigation for ensuring predators don’t move from workplace to workplace,” he said.

It’s one of the reasons Southern Baptist Convention officials said they did not alert Mark Aderholt’s future employers about abuse allegations brought to them in 2007 by a Texas woman, Anne Marie Miller.

An internal investigation by the International Mission Board, the denomination’s missionary arm, which employed Aderholt at the time, found that he had “more likely than not” abused Miller when he was a seminary student in Fort Worth in the late 1990s.

Aderhold was extradited to Texas last year after Miller filed a police report, and his case is pending.

The bill is also supported by Texas Catholic leaders and two entities associated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

Victims groups said they support the legislation, but they reiterated their desire for stronger legal protections for victims, some of whom have been sued for defamation after they came forward with allegations of abuse.