The Texas megachurch founder and pastor Robert Morris has been indicted on 5 felony counts of lewd or indecent acts with a toddler, from incidents that occurred in Oklahoma within the Eighties.
A multi-county grand jury issued an indictment on 12 March, which alleges Morris was a touring evangelist visiting in Hominy, Oklahoma, with the household of the alleged sufferer in December 1982. The indictment alleges Morris’s sexual misconduct started that Christmas and continued over 4 years. The alleged sufferer was 12 years previous on the time and Morris was 21 years previous.
Morris was a member of Donald Trump’s religious advisory committee and Evangelical Government Advisory Board throughout his first presidential time period and half of an effort to mobilize conservatives and evangelicals in assist of Trump’s 2024 presidential bid. He additionally hosted an look by Trump at Gateway church in June 2020.
“So I wish to thank Pastors Robert Morris and Steve Dulin. They’re nice individuals,” Trump stated on the look in 2020. Dulin, an elder on the church, resigned following an inner investigation of the abuse and the way the church dealt with it. “Nice individuals with an incredible repute. I’ve to say that. Nice repute. And Gateway church – the group has been unimaginable in internet hosting us.”
In 2024, following Morris’s resignation, the Trump marketing campaign stated Morris had no function within the marketing campaign.
He was additionally tapped by the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, in 2017 to assist a so-called “lavatory invoice” that sought to ban transgender individuals from utilizing their most popular lavatory.
“There could be no tolerance for individuals who sexually prey on kids,” stated the Oklahoma lawyer basic, Gentner Drummond, in a press launch. “This case is all of the extra despicable as a result of the alleged perpetrator was a pastor who exploited his place. The sufferer on this case has waited far too a few years for justice to be achieved.”
Morris, 63, resigned final 12 months as senior pastor of Gateway church, one of many largest megachurches within the US. The church skilled a pointy drop in donations following the revelations of the abuse and a category motion lawsuit. That lawsuit, filed in opposition to the church, alleged monetary fraud stemming from studies that solely $3m of its $100m in annual income went to international ministries.
In accordance to a leaked cellphone transcript, Morris tried to bribe the sufferer in 2005, who he confessed to sexually assaulting. Morris instructed the sufferer, who revealed herself as Cindy Clemishire, to “put a worth on it”. The transcript allegedly reveals Clemishire requested $2m earlier than Morris hung up the cellphone.
“After nearly 43 years, the legislation has lastly caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he dedicated in opposition to me as a toddler,” Clemishire stated of the indictment of Morris in a textual content message on the indictment offered by Clemishire’s lawyer to the Texas Tribune.
“Now, it’s time for the authorized system to carry him accountable. My household and I are deeply grateful to the authorities who’ve labored tirelessly to make at the present time doable and stay hopeful that justice will in the end prevail.”
In November 2024, Gateway church eliminated 4 elders following an inner investigation that exposed the ousted leaders both knew of the abuse or did not inquire additional after being knowledgeable of it.
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