Robert Morris — Gateway Church, Southlake
Founder of one of America's largest megachurches. Indicted in Oklahoma in March 2025 for abuse beginning when the survivor was 12, he pleaded guilty that October to all five counts.
Evangelical / Non-denominational Pleaded guilty (2025)
- Person
- Robert Morris
- Role
- Founder and senior pastor
- Institution
- Gateway Church, Southlake, Texas
- Location
- Southlake, Texas; charged in Oklahoma
- Status
- Pleaded guilty (October 2, 2025)
- Sentence
- 10 years with all but six months suspended; lifetime registration; $270,000 restitution
Case in brief
Tier 1 · Court-proven
Robert Morris founded Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, in 2000; it became one of the largest megachurches in the United States. In the 1980s, as a travelling evangelist, he abused a girl beginning when she was 12, over roughly four and a half years — the conduct set out in his Oklahoma indictment and admitted by his plea. The survivor, Cindy Clemishire, went public in June 2024. Morris resigned, initially describing a “moral failure” with a “young lady.” A multi-county Oklahoma grand jury indicted him in March 2025 on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, and on October 2, 2025, he pleaded guilty to all five counts, receiving a 10-year sentence with all but six months suspended, lifetime sex-offender registration, and $270,000 in restitution.
The institution
Gateway Church. Two institutional facts are documented beyond the plea: Clemishire testified to Texas legislators that she had earlier been offered $25,000 with an NDA, which she rejected; and she has sued Morris and Gateway for defamation, alleging leaders minimized child sexual abuse as a consensual “relationship.” The civil suit is an allegation posture, labeled as such; the plea is the adjudicated record.
The record
Tier 1 · Court-proven
| Item | Record |
|---|---|
| Conduct (per indictment and plea) | Abuse beginning when the survivor was 12, over ~4½ years, in the 1980s |
| Public disclosure | June 2024 — survivor went public; Morris resigned |
| Indictment (March 2025) | Five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child (Oklahoma multi-county grand jury) |
| Plea (October 2, 2025) | Guilty to all five counts |
| Sentence | 10 years, all but six months suspended; lifetime registration; $270,000 restitution |
| Jail term | 180 days in the Osage County Jail; completed — released March 2026, with 9½ years of probation remaining (court records) |
Status
Pleaded guilty (2025) and sentenced. Morris served the six-month jail term — 180 days in the Osage County Jail — and was released in March 2026; the balance of the 10-year sentence remains suspended, with 9½ years of probation and lifetime sex-offender registration. Defamation litigation by the survivor against Morris and Gateway was reported as ongoing at filing.
Records requested & responses
This archive has not filed records requests in this case. The file rests on the published sources below and will be updated if court or institutional records are obtained, or if that changes.
Video coverage
Verified coverage of this case, embedded from the publishers’ own channels — this archive does not download or re-upload other outlets’ video. Each segment below was verified through the YouTube Data API on October 25, 2026; the channel and date in each caption are the API’s own records.
- Sokolove Law case timeline (indictment, plea, NDA testimony, restitution): sokolovelaw.com
- Christian Post, “Cindy Clemishire seeks to overturn dismissal of lawsuit” (plea terms; six months in jail plus suspended term; lifetime registration): christianpost.com
- Oklahoma Attorney General, news release on the plea agreement (October 2, 2025) — five felony counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child; six months in the Osage County Jail with the remainder of the 10-year sentence suspended; sex-offender registration; $270,000 restitution — terms as reported from the release: crosswalk.com
- The Oklahoman, “Megachurch founder Robert Morris released from Oklahoma jail” (March 31, 2026) — court records: 180 days completed, release, 9½ years’ probation remaining: oklahoman.com
Update, October 25, 2026: this file was re-verified against the Oklahoma Attorney General’s October 2, 2025 news release — the guilty plea, the five counts, the sentence terms, the registration requirement, and the $270,000 restitution figure are confirmed as printed. The record above now also carries the completion of the jail term (180 days in the Osage County Jail; released March 2026, per court records), which post-dated this file’s original sources; the directory entry was updated the same day.
Filed October 18, 2026, from the published sources below. Minor victims are never named or identified in this file.