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Gateway Church Founder Robert Morris Pleads Guilty to 1980s Child Sex Abuse, Gets 6 Months in Jail
Robert Morris accepted a plea deal including a 10-year suspended sentence and six months in jail after admitting to abusing a child in the 1980s, victim said justice was served.
- On October 2, 2025, Robert Morris, founding pastor of Gateway Church, pleaded guilty in Osage County District Court to five felony counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, admitting abuse beginning when Cindy Clemishire was 12.
- After Clemishire went public in June 2024, the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office launched an investigation, leading to a multicounty grand jury indictment in March 2025 using a frontier-era law.
- Morris will serve six months in Osage County jail, be supervised by Texas authorities, must register as a sex offender, pay $250,000 restitution, and was taken into custody Thursday.
- The plea accelerates a fall from grace for Gateway Church, which lost attendance, donations, and staff while removing four elders after an outside review and facing lawsuits.
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Robert Morris founded Gateway Church, one of the largest mega-churches in the United States and was appointed by Trump as spiritual advisor in 2006
Pastor Robert Morris Pleads Guilty to All Counts of Child Sex Abuse
Robert Morris, the Texas megachurch pastor who founded Gateway Church, pleaded guilty Thursday to child sex abuse charges, ending a decadeslong case that shook one of the nation’s largest congregations. Morris, 64, admitted in Osage County District Court to five felony counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. Under a plea agreement, Special Judge Cindy Pickerill sentenced him to 10 years with all but six months suspended. He was taken into …
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Leaning Left55Leaning Right25Center95Last UpdatedBias Distribution54% Center
Bias Distribution
- 54% of the sources are Center
54% Center
L 32%
C 54%
14%
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