Robert Morris, founding pastor of Gateway Church, a megachurch in Southlake, Texas, has been indicted on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, stemming from alleged incidents dating back to the 1980s, the Oklahoma attorney general’s office announced Wednesday.
Morris resigned from Gateway Church last year following allegations that he had sexual relations in Oklahoma with a then 12-year-old girl, Cindy Clemishire, four decades ago.
“After almost 43 years, the law has finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he committed against me as a child,” Clemishire said in a statement Wednesday. “Now, it is time for the legal system to hold him accountable. My family and I are deeply grateful to the authorities who have worked tirelessly to make this day possible and remain hopeful that justice will ultimately prevail.”
The indictment was announced by the office of Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond. A multi-county grand jury investigation resulted in five felony counts.
“There can be no tolerance for those who sexually prey on children,” Drummond said. “This case is all the more despicable because the alleged perpetrator was a pastor who exploited his position. The victim in this case has waited far too many years for justice to be done.”
According to Drummond’s office, the statute of limitations does not apply to this case because Morris was not a resident or inhabitant of Oklahoma at any time.
Gateway Church released the following statement to CBS News Texas:
We are aware of the actions being taken by the legal authorities in Oklahoma and are grateful for the work of the justice system in holding abusers accountable for their actions. We continue to pray for Cindy Clemishire and her family, for the members and staff of Gateway Church, and for all of those impacted by this terrible situation.
The scandal surrounding Gateway Church’s Robert Morris
The public controversy for the megachurch began in June, when Cindy Clemishire publicly claimed the church’s founder, Robert Morris, sexually assaulted her starting in 1982 when she was 12 years old. Morris was a traveling Evangelist in his early 20s and had become close with her family.
Those allegations were first published by The Wartburg Watch, a North Carolina-based church watchdog blog, and then picked up by The Christian Post. Clemishire told The Wartburg Watch the alleged abuse continued until 1987.
Morris acknowledged in a sermon in 2014 that he was “sexually immoral” when he was a young man and admitted to “inappropriate sexual behavior” In a statement to the Christian Post.
“When I was in my early twenties, I was involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying,” he said. “It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong. This behavior happened on several occasions over the next few years.”
Church elders said Morris disclosed to them he’d had an extramarital affair, but not that he had allegedly abused a 12-year-old.
On June 18, Morris resigned from his position as senior pastor at Gateway Church.
Clemishire said she has mixed thoughts and feelings regarding Morris’ resignation and believes she is not the only victim.
“Though I am grateful that he is no longer a pastor at Gateway, I am disappointed that the Board of Elders allowed him to resign,” Clemishire wrote in a statement. “He should have been terminated.”
She rebuked church elders for knowing and acknowledging her claims of sexual abuse, but intentionally embracing “the false narrative Robert Morris wanted them to believe.”
On June 23, protesters gathered outside the church as a church elder addressed the congregation for the first time after Clemishire’s statements.
“As an elder, I did not know the truth and, frankly, like many of you my wife and I are shocked, devastated and grieving,” said Tra Willbanks, a Gateway Church elder. “I’d like to express my personal compassion for Cindy Clemishire, I can’t imagine carrying a burden like that for so many years and I want to say to you, Cindy, I’m so sorry.”
Four members of the Gateway Church Board of Elders, including Robert Morris’ son, were put on temporary leaves of absence as an outside legal team investigates the accusations against Morris, the church said on June 28.
Founded in 2000, the Southlake-based Gateway Church expanded to become one of the largest congregations in the nation, drawing approximately 100,000 attendees each weekend to its nine campuses. Morris broadcasted his weekly program live online to over 190 countries, reaching even wider audiences.
Gateway Church also recently settled a 2020 lawsuit alleging child sex abuse.
Gateway Church’s 2020 lawsuit
The case settled in April involved accusations that multiple church pastors covered up the alleged sexual abuse of a child by a member of the congregation in March 2018. The child’s mother filed the lawsuit in Tarrant County in 2020, which also claimed pastors encouraged members of the congregation to ostracize her.
The lawsuit also claimed that church leaders conspired when they failed to inform law enforcement that they were aware of the alleged abuse and had spoken with the church member accused. It also alleged the church leaders tried to discredit the allegations.
For its part, the megachurch said it is not guilty of any cover-up or failure to report, stating that the incident from the 2020 lawsuit did not happen on a Gateway campus or at a Gateway event but between two teens during a sleepover at a family home.
The church said a third teenager was told about the incident and later relayed it to his mother, a Gateway Church staff member, who reported it to “proper authorities within 48 hours.”
“The mother of the victim was irate and claimed [Gateway Church] intentionally hid the story for weeks and failed to report it to authorities,” the church said in a previous statement to CBS News Texas.
“She decided to file a lawsuit against [Gateway Church] … After the mother of the girl went through [six] different attorneys the insurance company decided to provide a settlement to avoid further litigation and expense. This was the ‘compromise of disputed claims,’ which Gateway justly defended in court,” the church added.
