SOUTHLAKE, Texas — In the wake of Robert Morris' resignation from his senior pastorship at Gateway Church, multiple new lawsuits and allegations against the megachurch have been brought to light. A woman accused Morris, the church's founder and senior pastor, of sexually assaulting her starting when she was 12 in the 1980s.
Now, with a spotlight on Gateway, the church's legal battles are being revealed.
Alleged abuse of a minor
Gateway Church settled a lawsuit in which at least five church staff members were accused of concealing the sexual assault of a minor by an unnamed Gateway member, according to court records. That lawsuit was settled about two months before a woman accused Robert Morris, according to court documents.
The lawsuit was filed in Tarrant County in 2020 on behalf of the child and the child’s mother, court records show. The child and her mother were both members of Gateway and frequently attended services and church functions before the girl was sexually assaulted by a Gateway member in 2018, the lawsuit alleged.
The plaintiffs sought damages of more than $200,000 but not more than $5,000,000, according to the lawsuit.
A Gateway youth leader became aware of the child’s allegations via conversations with the alleged perpetrator and other youths who attended Gateway and conversed with the perpetrator about the alleged sexual assault, the lawsuit alleged.
The youth leader shared the information with other pastors and defendants named in the lawsuit, but none filed a complaint with child protective agencies or law enforcement, according to court documents.
The child’s mother filed a police report with the Haltom City Police Department when she became aware of the allegations, records show.
They alleged in the lawsuit that the defendants “embarked on a concerted campaign to conceal, misconstrue and discredit the assault accusations while the active criminal investigation was ongoing.”
The case was settled about two months before Gateway’s founder and senior pastor Robert Morris resigned amid allegations he sexually abused a girl beginning when she was 12 in the ‘80s. Three church elders and Robert’s son, pastor James Morris, also recently announced they’d be taking a temporary leave of absence while an outside law firm investigates the allegations involving Robert.
Cindy Clemishire, the accuser, told WFAA the abuse continued until 1987 when she told a friend what had happened.
After the allegations were made public, Morris admitted he was "involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady," though he did not make reference to the girl's age.
“Regretfully, prior to Friday, June 14, the elders did not have all the facts of the inappropriate relationship between Morris and the victim, including her age at the time and the length of the abuse,” the Gateway Church board of elders said in a statement on the allegations against Robert. “The elders’ prior understanding was that Morris’ extramarital relationship, which he had discussed many times throughout his ministry, was with a ‘young lady’ and not abuse of a 12-year-old child.
Alleged assault of a child
Another lawsuit against Gateway in 2016 alleged that a minor was assaulted by a boy while attending a Gateway daycare program in 2014 while his parents were attending worship service, court documents show.
The child’s parents took him to the hospital for treatment when they discovered injuries after service, according to court documents.
The parents contacted the executive pastor of the program for an explanation of the injuries and were “baffled as to how [the boy] sustained an injury if, in fact, the program actually was providing one-on-one supervision,” the lawsuit alleged.
The child’s parents contacted another Gateway employee in 2015, who said the child’s injury was the result of the boy’s second assault while in the program, according to the lawsuit.
A representative of the church’s insurance company contacted the child’s parents in 2015 and asked his parents if they had seen a video of the boy’s injury, but no representative from Gateway had told the child’s parents about the existence of the video, the lawsuit alleged.
An executive pastor of the program said the child’s injuries were captured on video, but the video had been destroyed, the lawsuit alleged.
An agent of Gateway’s insurance company then told the child’s parents that Gateway had the video, but refused to provide it, according to the lawsuit.
The child’s parents hired a lawyer to try to get the video but were told by the lawyer that the entire original video couldn’t be produced because much of the footage had been destroyed, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit was reportedly settled.
Alleged workplace harassment
Another lawsuit was filed in 2023 by a woman who was hired in 2018 to serve as a temporary administrative assistant at Gateway’s North Richland Hills campus, in which she alleged harassment by a pastor and a hostile work environment, court records show.
The woman worked at Gateway until September of 2021, according to the lawsuit.
The status of this lawsuit is unclear.
WFAA has reached out to Gateway for comment on the lawsuits but hasn’t heard back.
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