Gateway Church and former Pastor Robert Morris have settled their legal dispute over Morris’ retirement payments. There is “no indication in Friday’s filing whether Morris and his wife, Debbie, would receive any compensation,” CBS News reported.
Morris, who founded the Southlake, Texas, headquartered multisite megachurch, resigned in disgrace after being accused of child sex abuse.
The accusation came from Cindy Clemishire, who alleged that Morris sexually abused her in the 1980s. At the time of the abuse, Morris was a traveling evangelist who would sometimes stay with Clemishire’s family in Oklahoma. Clemishire was 12 years old when the abuse began.
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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.
Morris was forced to resign from Gateway in the summer of 2024 after Clemishire came forward with her story.
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.
RELATED: While Some Think Robert Morris’ Prison Term Is Too Short, a Texas Attorney Says It’s ‘Appropriate’
Morris received a 10-year prison sentence with all but six months suspended. After serving his six months at the Osage County Jail, Morris was released in March of this year to serve out the remainder of his sentence as probation in Texas.
