The founder of Texas Megachurch, who resigned as senior pastor last year after admitting in the 1980s to have been charged with five crimes involving children, said Wednesday.
Robert Morris, 63, who founded Gateway Church in Southlake, has been charged with five counts of indecency or vulgarity with a child, the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.
The abuse began in December 1982 when Morris visited Oklahoma, home to the victims. He was 21 years old and at the time he was 12 years old.
It lasted for four years, the agency said.
Rev. Robert Morris (Alex Brandon/AP file) at Gateway Church Dallas Campus on June 11, 2020
It was not clear whether Morris had a lawyer in the criminal case released Wednesday.
Southlake’s Gateway Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is one of the largest megachurches in the United States.
In June, after Cindi Cremicia accused Morris of sexually abusing her as a child, Morris said she was “engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young woman in the house where I was staying.”
“It was kissing and interacting, not fucking, but it was wrong,” he said.
Three days later, he resigned as senior pastor, and said the church’s elders committee was unaware of the girl’s age or the length of alleged abuse.
“The elder’s prior understanding was that Morris’ extramarital affair, which he discussed many times throughout his ministry, was the same as the ‘young woman’, not the abuse of a 12-year-old child,” the board said at the time.
Voicemails left at the church administration office were not returned immediately after opening hours on Wednesday evening.
Robert Morris, his wife and children in 1984 (Courtesy Cindy Clemisher)
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a statement.
“This case is even more despicable because the perpetrator was a pastor who exploited his position,” Drummond said.
Cindi Cremisher on Christmas Day 1982 (Courtesy Cindi Cremisher)
The indictment referring to the girl solely as CC alleges that Morris inappropriately touched the girl on other occasions again, including when he rubbed her on December 25, 1982, when he was 12 years old and again at age 13-14. He also took off the girl’s clothes when she was 12 years old.
Clemisher said Morris told him to keep the abuse a secret. (Nitashia Johnson of NBC News)
Clemisher told NBC News last year that the abuse began when evangelistic Morris was staying at his family home on Christmas Day.
Clemisher said Morris told her. It’s going to ruin everything. ”
In a statement written Wednesday, she said she appreciated the authorities for their work in criminal cases.
“Nearly 43 years later, the law finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crime he committed on me as a child. Now it’s time for the legal system to hold him accountable,” she said.
In 2007, Clemisher hired Drummond to represent her by seeking compensation from Morris to cover the costs of her counseling. When Clemishire was not willing to sign a private agreement, negotiations fell apart, she told NBC News.
Morris was a member of President Donald Trump’s spiritual advisory committee during his first term.
After the allegations were made public last year, Trump campaign spokesman Stephen Chong said Trump was not aware of the allegations.
Morris was not in custody Wednesday, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office said. The fee will be concluded in Osage County Thursday, with the judge setting the first look and bond.
“The Oklahoma Attorney General’s office will work with Morris’ attorneys to surrender himself,” the Attorney General’s Office said.
Accusations of indecent or vulgar conduct against a child are felony punishable in prison for up to 20 years, the office said.
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