Robert Morris, the former Texas megachurch pastor who founded Gateway Church, has pleaded guilty to charges of sexually abusing a girl in the 1980s.
Appearing in an Oklahoma courthouse on Thursday, the 64-year-old, who resigned from the church last year after the woman accused him of abusing her decades earlier, pleaded guilty to five counts of lewd and indecent acts with a child, court documents show.
The abuse began in December 1982 when Morris was a traveling evangelist visiting the family of Cindy Clemishire, who was 12 years old at the time, in Hominy, Oklahoma, the state’s attorney general’s office said in a statement Thursday. The abuse continued for four years.
Under the plea agreement, Morris received a 10-year suspended sentence with the first six months to be served in the Osage County Jail. He is required to register as a sex offender and will be supervised by Texas authorities, the attorney general’s office said.
Morris was also ordered to pay his costs of incarceration, including any medical expenses, and pay $250,000 in restitution to the victim, NBC News reported.
Clemishire, now 55, sat in the courtroom Thursday, the outlet reported. She told the court that the abuse “rippled into every part” of her life.
“Let me be clear,” she said. “There is no such thing as consent from a 12-year-old child. We were never in an ‘inappropriate relationship.’ I was not a ‘young lady’ but a child. You committed a crime against me.”
“Today justice has finally been served, and the man who manipulated, groomed and abused me as a 12-year-old innocent girl is finally going to be behind bars,” she said in a statement after he pleaded guilty. “My hope is that many victims hear my story, and it can help lift their shame and allow them to speak up…I leave this courtroom today not as a victim, but a survivor.”
She went public with the allegations against Morris in June 2024. Days later, he resigned from his role at Gateway Church and admitted to “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady” three decades earlier.
Attorneys for Morris expressed his remorse in a statement to CBS News: “He sincerely hopes that his plea and jail sentence coupled with probation brings Ms. Clemishire and her family the finality that they might need,” the statement said. “He is at peace with his sentence and, in an odd way, looks forward to fulfilling this penance, namely going to jail for his past sin and crime.”
In June, Clemishire filed a civil suit against Morris seeking at least $1 million for slander, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress in the years following his abuse.
Morris founded Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas in 2000, later growing it into a megachurch that boasted 10 campuses and more than 100,000 active attendees, according to his website last June.
But since the scandal first broke, the church has been struggling to get donations, according to Amy Smith, who monitors ethical concerns at megachurches.
“Every few months there have been some announcements regarding financial issues,” Smith told Fox 4 in June. “They can’t just go on with business as usual.”
The former pastor served as Donald Trump’s spiritual adviser in 2016. In 2020, Morris hosted the president at the Dallas campus, where Trump hailed Morris as a “great” person with a “great reputation.”
After Morris resigned from his post following Clemishire’s accusations, a spokesperson for Trump’s 2024 presidential bid told the The New York Times that Morris had no role in the campaign: “President Trump’s broad appeal among faith communities across the country is a testament to his unwavering commitment to upholding faith and the protection of religious liberties.”
Social media users celebrated the outcome, while some remarked that the plea agreement was too lenient.
“Too bad the time he spends in jail will be so short for such an egregious crime,” one user wrote.
Another remarked: “He got off easy only 6 months in a county jail and no prison time.”
Tennessee Republican Congressman Tim Burchett also weighed in: “Hang him.”
Several other officials have remarked on the case.
“There can be no tolerance for those who sexually prey on children,” Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a statement. “This case is all the more despicable because the perpetrator was a pastor who exploited his position of trust and authority. The victim in this case has waited far too many years for this day.”
Texas state Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican, was in the courtroom Thursday. He told CBS: “Today I saw a real-life superhero conquer an evil villain.”
Leach added: “After today, Cindy Clemishire is free. And Robert Morris, her abuser, is not. And he never will be again. Going forward, we must do all we can to support abuse victims like Cindy, who had her childhood robbed from her and has had to live with shame and pain for decades before finally seeing justice prevail today.”
With reporting from The Associated Press.
