Robert Morris, former megachurch pastor who pleaded guilty to child sex abuse, has been released from jail in Oklahoma. Morris was serving a 10-year sentence. However, all but six months of the prison term were suspended at sentencing.
Morris founded Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, in 2000 and grew the congregation into a multisite megachurch. He was forced to resign in disgrace in June 2024 when Cindy Clemishire came forward to allege that Morris had sexually abused her when she was 12 years old.
The abuse occurred in the 1980s at Clemishire’s home in Oklahoma, where Morris would occasionally stay when he worked as a traveling evangelist.
Morris had for years been open about past “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady,” but it was not publicly known that Clemishire, the “young lady” to whom Morris referred, was a child at the time.
After Morris departed from Gateway, the church hired a third-party investigator to conduct an inquiry into the coverup of Morris’ criminal sexual misconduct. The investigation revealed that more than one high-level leader in the church either knew that Clemishire was a child at the time of the abuse or knew enough that they ought to have inquired further.
Those individuals were removed from their positions of leadership at the church.
In March 2025, Morris was charged in Oklahoma with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. In October 2025, he entered a guilty plea as part of a sentencing agreement.
Clemishire has filed civil litigation against Morris, and Morris is also involved in back-and-forth litigation with Gateway Church.
Now that Morris has been released from the Osage County Jail, he will serve out the remainder of his suspended sentence, which amounts to probation, in Texas. According to CBS News, he plans to serve his sentence at his $1.5 million lakefront home in Palo Pinto County.
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Morris will be required to register as a sex offender for life and pay for the costs of his incarceration. He also owes $270,000 in restitution to Clemishire.
