Robert Morris Pleads Guilty to Child Sex Abuse Charges
PAWHUSKA, Okla. — Gateway Church founder Robert Morris pleaded guilty Thursday to five counts of lewd or indecent acts to a child. The former pastor, who founded the Southlake megachurch in 2000, agreed to a plea deal during a hearing at the Osage County Courthouse.
Morris agreed to a 10-year suspended sentence and will serve six months in jail. He agreed to pay his accuser, Cindy Clemishire, $270,000 and register as a sex offender for life. Clemishire said she was consulted on the plea deal.
After the hearing, Morris, 64, was handcuffed and taken into custody. His attorneys, Bill Mateja and Mack Martin, read a statement in which Morris apologized to the Clemishires and asked for their forgiveness. He thanked his friends, family and Gateway church members for their support and forgiveness. Gateway, through a spokesperson, declined to comment.
“He pled guilty because he wanted to accept responsibility for his conduct,” Mateja said. “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.”
The Victim’s Story
Clemishire read a victim impact statement through tears. “I am not a victim; I am a survivor,” she said. She said Morris’ abuse had changed the course of her life. “You trained me to believe abuse was love, and that my body was not sacred,” she said. “I carried that heavy burden of shame for decades.”
Morris warned her she would “ruin everything” if she told others what was happening, and that warning became a “prison” for her, she said. Clemishire read from Genesis 50:20, in which Joseph says God used an evil situation for good, so that many might be saved.
Her sister Karen Black also read a statement before the court. “Not a day has gone by that she hasn’t thought about the abuse she endured,” Black said of her sister.
Morris did not look at Clemishire as she spoke. After Clemishire and Black’s remarks, Morris read, in a quiet voice, the charges he was pleading guilty to. He named the private parts of Clemishire’s body he had touched, referring to her as “CC.”
Support and Reaction
Clemishire sat beside her mother Susan, 79, and father Jerry, 82. State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Allen, and Elizabeth Carlock Phillips of Highland Park sat behind the Clemishires. Both championed a new law that bans the use of nondisclosure agreements to silence sexual abuse survivors.
“Today I saw a real-life superhero conquer an evil villain,” Leach said in a statement after the hearing.
Cindy Clemishire (center) walks with family and friends into the arraignment hearing for Dallas-area megachurch Gateway founder Robert Morris outside of the Osage County Courthouse in Pawhuska, OK on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. Morris pleaded guilty to five counts of lewd or indecent acts to a child.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
Child Sex Abuse Charges
In June 2024, Cindy Clemishire publicly accused Morris of sexually abusing her from the ages of 12 to 17 in the 1980s. Morris was indicted on child sex abuse charges in March, according to Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond.
“There can be no tolerance for those who sexually prey on children,” Drummond said Thursday. “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.”
Morris turned himself in on March 17 and entered a not guilty plea, according to court records. He was released on a $50,000 bond, according to Osage County officials.
He made an initial court appearance on May 9 and waived a preliminary hearing in a short appearance on Sept. 4.
Statute of Limitations
When Clemishire first accused Morris of abusing her, legal experts said they doubted Morris would face any criminal charges.
That doubt was rooted in statute of limitations laws. In the 1980s, Texas law said that in a case of alleged child abuse, charges needed to be brought against the accused person within a few years.
Drummond, the Oklahoma attorney general, told The News in a March interview that a frontier-era Oklahoma law might allow Morris to be prosecuted anyway.
“When Oklahoma was formulating its constitution and statutory framework, we were ‘no man’s land,’ we were Indian territory,” Drummond said. He said the state put a law on the books to prevent people from neighboring states like Arkansas and Texas from coming to Oklahoma, committing crimes and returning home.
Gateway Church Fallout
Morris founded Gateway in the living room of his Southlake home with just 30 people. Three years later, Gateway
