Robert Morris, 64, founder and former senior pastor of a Texas megachurch who served on Donald Trump’s Evangelical Advisory Board in 2016, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a child on Thursday.
Morris pleaded guilty to five felony counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. Under a negotiated plea agreement, he was given a 10-year sentence, but he will serve only six months in the county jail. He must also register as a sex offender and pay $250,000 in restitution, according to NBC News.
The charges stemmed from abuse that started in 1982 when the victim was 12 years old, according to the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office.
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. The abuse continued until she was 16.
Morris resigned from the Gateway Church last June after the allegations were made public.
“There can be no tolerance for those who sexually prey on children,” Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a release. “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.”
Clemishire, now an adult, says the plea represents long-awaited justice.
“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. “My hope is that many victims hear my story, and it can help lift their shame and allow them to speak up. I hope that laws continue to change and new ones are written so children and victims’ rights are better protected. I hope that people understand the only way to stop child sexual abuse is to speak up when it happens or is suspected.”
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.
