Megachurch Founder Turns Himself in

UPDATE Mar 17, 2025 2:49 PM CDT

Texas megachurch founder Robert Preston Morris surrendered to authorities in Osage County, Oklahoma on child sex abuse charges Monday. Court records show that the 63-year-old, who has been charged with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, was ordered to surrender his passport, the AP reports. A judge set his bond at $50,000. Phil Bacharach, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office, says Morris has a May 9 court date. Morris is accused of abusing a girl in the 1980s, when he was a traveling preacher, starting when she was just 12 years old.

Mar 13, 2025 10:35 AM CDT

Less than a year ago, the founding pastor of a Texas megachurch resigned after admitting he'd sexually abused a young girl for years. Now, an official indictment for Gateway Church's Robert Morris, who has also served as a spiritual adviser to President Trump. Morris, 63, was hit with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, stemming from allegations that stretch back to the early '80s, reports the AP. Those accusations were made by Cindy Clemishire, now 55, who said that Morris, a traveling preacher at the time, had started abusing her in 1982, when she was just 12.

The indictment says that Morris abused the girl until she was 14, with the grand jury behind it "concluding that he had used his hands and body to touch the girl's private parts," per the New York Times. The paper also notes Morris' ties to Trump, serving on the president's faith advisory council during his first term and hosting Trump at his Dallas church in June 2020. A Trump rep has since said that Morris wasn't involved with Trump's 2024 campaign. The Texas Tribune reports that, since Clemishire came forward, at least a dozen churches and/or pastors in the Dallas area have found themselves accused of committing or concealing sexual misconduct.

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In a statement, Clemishire said she was "deeply grateful" that a reckoning has finally come for her abuser. "After almost 43 years, the law has finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he committed against me as a child," she said. "Now, it is time for the legal system to hold him accountable." As for Gateway, one of America's largest churches, the church said in a statement: "We are aware of the actions being taken by the legal authorities in Oklahoma and are grateful for the work of the justice system in holding abusers accountable for their actions." Morris, who was reportedly not in custody as of Wednesday, could see up to 20 years behind bars on each of the five counts. (More megachurches stories.)