Robert Morris, the founder of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, will spend six months in prison as part of a 10-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty Thursday to sexually abusing the now 55-year-old Cindy Clemishire beginning when she was 12 in the 1980s.
“He simply accepted responsibility for his crime from the mid-1980’s and pled guilty. He pled guilty because he wanted to accept responsibility for his conduct. While he believes that he long since accepted responsibility in the eyes of God — and that Gateway Church was a manifestation of that acceptance — he readily accepted responsibility in the eyes of the law by virtue of his guilty plea,” Morris’ lawyer Bill Mateja said in a statement after the hearing in Osage County Court, Oklahoma.
“He also pled guilty for the sake of finality. Not only did he want to bring this legal matter to a quick end for his own sake and that of his family, he brought it to a quick end for the sake of Ms. Clemishire and her family and he sincerely hopes that his plea and jail sentence coupled with probation brings Ms. Clemishire and her family the finality that they might need.”
Morris was indicted in March on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child by a multi-county grand jury in Oklahoma in connection to his actions against Clemishire, who reported that Morris began sexually abusing her on Dec. 25, 1982, when she was 12, and continued with the abuse for four-and-a-half years after that.
Last November, Gateway Church, which Morris founded in 2000, removed multiple elders after a four-month investigation found that all but three church elders had some knowledge about Morris’ encounter with Clemishire and “failed to inquire further.” Some allegedly knew before allegations became public that Clemishire was a child when the abuse occurred.
Earlier this year, Clemishire and her father, Jerry Lee Clemishire, filed a lawsuit seeking more than $1 million, alleging Morris and Gateway Church leaders mischaracterized the abuse she suffered as a consensual “relationship” with a “young lady” instead of the sexual assault of a child.
In a statement to Morris during the sentencing hearing, Clemishire reiterated that she was nowhere near being a “lady” when she was abused.
“Let me be clear,” she said, according to NBC News. “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.”
In addition to his six-month jail term and a 10-year suspended sentence, Morris will also have to pay $270,000 in restitution and register as a sex offender.
“Finally, I know I speak for Pastor Robert’s lead counsel in this case, Mack Martin, (1) in saying that it’s been a privilege to represent Pastor Morris and (2) in sharing that we’re both witnesses to Pastor Robert being genuinely apologetic and sorry for his actions,” Mateja said.
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