Gateway Church’s embattled founder, Robert Morris, has formally pleaded “not guilty” to five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child stemming from allegations made by 54-year-old Cindy Clemishire last June. Although some survivor advocates suggest the plea reflects a level of unrepentance, Clemishire sees something else.
The Southlake, Texas, megachurch founder, who was indicted by a multi-county grand jury last Wednesday, appeared at an arraignment with his attorney Mack Martin of the Martin Law Office and pleaded not guilty after he acknowledged his receipt of the charges and was advised of his rights, records from the Osage County Court in Oklahoma show.
Morris’ attorney filed a motion requesting preliminary hearing court orders. Morris remains free on a $50,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on May 9 at 10 a.m.
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Martin did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Morris’ plea from The Christian Post on Tuesday.
Dee Parsons of The Wartburg Watch, which first published Clemishire’s allegations of child sexual abuse against Morris last June, argued in an X post Monday morning that she found a “not guilty” plea by Morris problematic.
“If he (Morris) pleads ‘not guilty’ we will know exactly how he treats the truth,” she wrote. And she is not alone.
“He does not know truth nor has he repented,” another survivor advocate identified as Chrissy replied on the platform. “His plea of not guilty proves this. If he had repented he would accept any earthly punishment coming to him and he certainly wouldn’t lie about his innocence.”
When asked if she was surprised by Morris’ “not guilty” plea, Clemishire told CP on Tuesday that she sees it more as a legal maneuver than an attempt to realistically challenge her claims against him.
“It did not surprise me,” Clemishire said. “It is my understanding any attorney would advise their client to plead not guilty. It gives the criminal the opportunity to negotiate a plea.”
Arrest documents reviewed by CP show that Morris was formally booked by the Osage County Sheriff’s Office in Oklahoma at 7:57 a.m. Monday and was released minutes later on bond at 8:11 a.m.
Morris’ surrender to authorities on Monday came just hours after Gateway Church officials offered prayers to congregants and sought to distance the church from their former leader.
The charges against the megachurch founder stem from claims Clemishire made last June that Morris sexually abused her over multiple years in the 1980s when he was a traveling evangelist, beginning when she was 12. He resigned from Gateway Church days after the allegations became public.
“Last November, our elders made it clear that we had drawn a bright line as a church, and we were moving forward,” Nic Lesmeister, Gateway Church’s executive pastor of global outreach, reiterated in an address Sunday. “And because we’re moving forward, and Gateway is no longer involved in this legal matter, we won’t be continuing to update you on the proceedings of the case, but we’re continuing to pray for everybody that’s involved and affected in this matter.”
Morris faces a possible 100 years maximum in prison if he is convicted on all five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child and a judge orders sentences to be served consecutively. He could also be sentenced to as little as five years in prison if convicted on all five counts due to the law that was in effect for the crime more than 35 years ago, according to the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office.
Current penalties in Oklahoma for lewd acts or indecent acts with a child under 16 committed by an adult is three to 20 years in prison and at least 25 years in prison if the child is under 12. Repeat offenders can be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“At that time, the range of punishment was 1-20 years in prison,” Carrie Burkhart, deputy press secretary for Oklahoma’s Office of the Attorney General told CP. “These other restrictions were not in effect in the law that existed at the time of Morris’ alleged crimes.”
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