Gateway Church's disgraced founding pastor Robert Morris has pleaded guilty to all five charges of lewd or indecent acts to a child stemming from child abuse allegations in the 1980s, according to court records shared with KERA News.
Morris, 64, entered the plea during an arraignment Thursday and was given a 10-year sentence, but will only serve six months in Osage County Jail in Oklahoma, where the abuse took place, court documents show.
He will also be required to register as a lifetime sex offender and pay $270,000 to the victim, Cindy Clemishire.
Bill Majeta, an attorney for Morris said in a statement he pleaded guilty to accept responsibility — and asks Clemishire and her family for forgiveness.
"He also pled guilty for the sake of finality. Not only did he want to bring this legal matter to a quick end for his own sake and that of his family, he brought it to a quick 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 might need," Majeta said.
KERA News reached out to Clemishire’s attorney and Oklahoma’s attorney general and will update this story with any response.
Clemishire went public in June 2024 about the abuse she endured from Morris when she was 12 years old in the 1980s. She said it went on for more than four years.
Shortly after, Morris resigned from the megachurch after admitting to a “inappropriate relationship” with Clemishire.
Morris was indicted and arrested in March on those charges and initially pleaded not guilty. He also waived his preliminary hearing last month.
The abuse claims rocked Gateway, which was considered one of the largest megachurches in the nation. Since it came to light, the megachurch has faced a drop in church attendance, church donations, staff cuts and unrelated lawsuits.
That includes a suit from Clemishire and her father filed in June. They claim Morris, his wife, and Gateway staff covered up the abuse claims for years. It also says they defamed her when she came forward with the allegations.
The suit claims Morris characterized the alleged assault as a consensual affair in which Morris was seduced by Clemishire, who was a child at the time.
The suit pointed to Morris' previous statement acknowledging the abuse claims, where he referred to Clemishire as a “young lady.”
Church elders issued Morris' statement to the congregation in June of 2024, calling Morris' alleged abuse a "moral failure," according to Clemishire's original filing.
Gateway and several church elders have since asked to be dismissed from the suit.
Penelope Rivera is KERA's breaking news reporter. Got a tip? Email Penelope Rivera at privera@kera.org.
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