Robert Morris, the founding father of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, will spend six months in prison as a part of a 10-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty Thursday to sexually abusing the now 55-year-old Cindy Clemishire starting when she was 12 within the Nineteen Eighties.
“He simply accepted responsibility for his crime from the mid-1980’s and pled guilty. He pled guilty because he wanted to simply accept responsibility for his conduct. While he believes that he long since accepted responsibility within the eyes of God — and that Gateway Church was a manifestation of that acceptance — he readily accepted responsibility within the eyes of the law by virtue of his guilty plea,” Morris’ lawyer Bill Mateja said in an announcement after the hearing in Osage County Court, Oklahoma.
“He also pled guilty for the sake of finality. Not only did he wish to bring this legal matter to a fast end for his own sake and that of his family, he brought it to a fast 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 could need.”
Morris was indicted in March on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a baby 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 each one but three church elders had some knowledge about Morris’ encounter with Clemishire and “didn’t inquire further.” Some allegedly knew before allegations became public that Clemishire was a baby when the abuse occurred.
Earlier this yr, Clemishire and her father, Jerry Lee Clemishire, filed a lawsuit in search of greater than $1 million, alleging Morris and Gateway Church leaders mischaracterized the abuse she suffered as a consensual “relationship” with a “young lady” as an alternative of the sexual assault of a baby.
In an announcement to Morris through the sentencing hearing, Clemishire reiterated that she was nowhere near being a “lady” when she was abused.
“Let me be clear,” she said, based on NBC News. “There isn’t any such thing as consent from a 12-year-old child. We were never in an ‘inappropriate relationship.’ I used to be not a ‘young lady’ but a baby. You committed against the law against me.”
In addition to his six-month jail term and a 10-year suspended sentence, Morris may even must pay $270,000 in restitution and register as a sex offender.
Mateja added that he was a witness to Pastor Robert “being genuinely apologetic and sorry for his actions.”
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