Morris was indicted on charges of lewd or indecent acts with a child, but alleges that Gateway Church uses it to breach financial promises in ongoing court battles.
DALLAS — In a new court filing written by his attorneys, former pastor Robert Morris, the founder of Gateway Church in Southlake, admits his decades-old relationship with a 12-year-old girl was “highly inappropriate,” but says the church knew about it for years and is now using it to break financial promises.
In the motion, filed in Tarrant County district court on May 30, Morris asks a judge to reject Gateway Church’s attempt to pause arbitration and instead compel the case to proceed through Christian arbitration, as Morris claims is agreed in his employment contracts.
Morris resigned from the megachurch in June 2024 after Cindy Clemishire accused him of molesting her on Christmas in 1982 in Hominy, Oklahoma, when she was 12 years old. In March, an Oklahoma grand jury indicted Morris on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child.
“Pastor Morris does not dispute that he had a highly inappropriate relationship with CC [Clemishire] in the 1980s, and he is now dealing with the criminal consequences of that relationship from 40 years ago in an Oklahoma criminal court,” the Friday filing states.
The court filing argues that Gateway’s leadership was aware of the allegations as far back as 2005 and had even discussed them in elder meetings, emails, and legal consultations. He provided documents showing elders referred to the matter as a “closed issue” after what they described as a “restoration period” in the late 1980s.
Following Morris’ resignation, several other staff members, including Robert’s son, James, left the church. James Morris has since founded a new church. Then, after an internal investigation by the church led to the firing of multiple Gateway elders, the church announced it would add four new elders.
“If Gateway says that it took decisive action to rid itself of everyone who knew of Pastor Morris’s inappropriate relationship, then why does it still retain the law firm who also knew of the relationship and is now the attack dog for Gateway in its lawsuit against Pastor Morris,” Morris’ lawyer, Bill Mateja, said in a statement to WFAA.
“Moreover, why does Gateway continue the false narrative of saying that Pastor Morris wasn’t transparent with Gateway leadership when it readily acknowledges dismissing the numerous leaders and staff who knew of Morris’s highly inappropriate relationship,” Mateja said.
“Nothing in this filing is new and it represents just the latest sad attempt by Robert Morris to deflect blame away from himself to others for his criminal actions,” Gateway said in a statement Friday.
Gateway goes on to say, “We have consistently and publicly said that there were Elders and employees at Gateway who knew about this issue before it became public, and either didn’t take action or didn’t inquire further. That was fundamentally wrong, the church Elders took decisive action, and none of those individuals are a part of Gateway Church today. Worse, Robert Morris, in his own filing, continues to call his actions an ‘inappropriate relationship’ instead of saying what it truly was – a terrible crime against a child. There seems to be nothing that Robert won’t say or do to blame everyone else but himself.”
Earlier this month, Gateway Church argued in court documents that Morris is trying to force Gateway to pay him more than $1 million in deferred compensation and additional retirement benefits estimated at $600,000 to $800,000. The church says that because of the accusations and criminal charges leveled against Morris, his contract was disqualified, and the church isn’t required to pay him.
Morris has also filed a motion on Friday to disqualify the church’s longtime attorney, David Middlebrook, from its current legal team, claiming a serious conflict of interest.
The motion argues that Middlebrook and his law firm, The Church Lawyers, represented Morris personally for years, including the matters related to Clemishire, the filing alleges.
But according to court documents, Morris says Middlebrook gave him legal counsel during multiple flashpoints over the past two decades, including during a 2007 legal threat and a series of anonymous, accusatory emails in 2011. The motion states that Morris disclosed confidential details to Middlebrook, making it unethical and impermissible for the lawyer to now represent Gateway against him.
The filing also claims that Gateway is using the allegations as a reason to withhold Morris’s contractual severance package.
Middlebrook has not yet responded publicly to the motion.