New lawsuit filed by woman who accused former Gateway leader of sexual abuse
At the center of the lawsuit, accuser Cindy Clemishire and her father, Jerry Lee Clemishire, claim that former Gateway founder and pastor Robert Morris and the Southlake-based church benefited financially from concealing the alleged abuse, according to the documents. Clemishire and her father are seeking civil damages in excess of $1 million.
Clemishire came forward last summer with the allegations that Morris had abused her in the 1980s at her Oklahoma home, the Star-Telegram previously reported. Morris resigned from the church shortly afterward and in March was indicted in Oklahoma on five felony counts of 'lewd or indecent acts to a child' in the Clemishire case.
In the suit filed Thursday in Dallas County, the Clemishires claim that Morris and the church dismissed the sexual assault for years, characterizing it as 'nothing more than an inappropriate relationship,' when in reality it was the sexual abuse of a child, according to a statement from the family's lawyers.
'Morris and his co-conspirators dismissed the sexual assault of Clemishire... deceiving thousands of church parishioners and the public with a false narrative that the sexual acts performed on the plaintiff as a minor child were consensual,' the statement reads.
The suit also alleges that the church 'knowingly issued false and defamatory statements' shortly after Clemishire came forward with the allegations in June 2024. At the time, church elders said they didn't have all the facts about Clemishire's abuse and did not know she was 12 years old at the time, according to the lawsuit.
Several of Gateway's elders, also named as co-defendants in the lawsuit, were removed from the church last fall after an independent investigation found they did have knowledge of Morris' conduct before it was publicly disclosed, the Star-Telegram previously reported.
Taken together, the actions of Morris, his family and the church's elders constitute a civil conspiracy aimed at covering up the sexual abuse of Clemishire, according to the lawsuit.
'The accusations make clear the defendants acted in concert, cooperated with each other and conspired to maximize their profits through their unlawful and unjust course of action to fraudulently conceal and cover up the rape of [Clemishire,]' a statement from Clemishire's lawyers reads.
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In May, Morris filed a lawsuit asking Tarrant County courts to force the Southlake megachurch to arbitrate a dispute about his retirement pay, the Star-Telegram previously reported. Morris claimed in that suit that Gateway was using Clemishire's abuse allegations to get out of fulfilling a multi-million dollar financial commitment to him.
A Gateway Church spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit Thursday and noted that former spokesperson Lawrence Swicegood, who is named as a defendant in the suit, has not been employed by the church since November 2024.
Lawyers for Morris could not immediately be reached for comment.
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