Robert Morris, 63, the pro-Trump ex-pastor of a Texas megachurch has been indicted in Oklahoma on child sexual abuse charges, according to the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office.
Morris, the former pastor of The Gateway Church has been charged with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child.
“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 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.”
The alleged abuse started in 1982 when the victim was 12 years old and Morris was a traveling evangelist staying in Hominy, Oklahoma, with her family, according to the attorney general’s office.
The alleged abuse continued for four-and-a-half years.
The victim, Cindy Clemishire, told The Wartburg Watch, a religious watchdog blog, last year that she met Morris in 1981 when he was 20 years old. At the time, Morris was a traveling preacher and began preaching at her family’s church in Oklahoma.
Clemishire said Morris, his wife and young son became close to her family and by the following year they were staying at her home when the abuse began.
Morris resigned last June from the Gateway Church after the allegations were made public.
“After almost 43 years, the law has finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he committed against me,” Clemishire said in a statement Wednesday.
“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,” she added.
Morris founded the Gateway Church in Dallas in 2000. Its membership has grown to over 100,000 since then, making it one of the largest megachurches in the country.
In 2016, Trump appointed him to his spiritual advisory board. Morris also hosted and participated in a roundtable discussion with Trump and other religious leaders at his church in 2020.
