News - Texas megachurch pastor pleads guilty to sexually abusing girl in 1980s

The 64-year-old resigned from his post at the Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, last year after allegations of sexual abuse surfaced. He founded the church in 2000. Morris previously served as one of President Donald Trump‘s faith advisers, assisting him during the early part of his 2024 campaign to excite conservatives and evangelicals. Cindy Clemishire, who Morris pleaded guilty to sexually abusing in incidents starting on Christmas night in 1982, detailed her story to NBC News. She said Morris felt her breasts and under her underwear in the first incident, telling her to “never tell anyone about this.” “It will ruin everything,” she recalled he said. She kept the secret for the next five years until she told her parents and leaders at her church, though nobody contacted the police. Clemishire later approached Morris and the leaders of Gateway Church in the mid-2000s, seeking $50,000 to cover expenses from her childhood therapy to recover from the trauma. After she declined to sign a nondisclosure agreement, no deal was made. Morris had offered to pay half, $25,000. She accused Morris of sexual abuse last year, and the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation into him. In March of this year, a grand jury indicted Morris on five felony counts, alleging he abused Clemishire from 1982 to 1985. Prosecutors said they should be able to move forward with the decades-old allegations because of an old provision in state law that paused the statute of limitations when a defendant moves out of state. Morris pleaded not guilty in May and was released on a $50,000 bond. He then agreed to plead guilty on Thursday in a deal with the prosecution. With her 82-year-old father shedding tears in court, Clemishire delivered a verbal statement telling Morris that his abuse “rippled into every part” of her life. “Let me be clear,” she said. “There is no such thing as consent from a 12-year-old child. We were never in an ‘inappropriate relationship.’ I was not a ‘young lady’ but a child. You committed a crime against me.”