OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma woman recalled a traveling evangelist who preached at her family’s church in Osage County more than 40 years ago.
The preacher, along with his wife and son, eventually befriended the woman’s family and stayed in their home, she said. That’s when the woman alleged the sexual abuse began, in 1982 when she was just 12 years old.
On Monday, former Texas megachurch pastor Robert Preston Morris, 63, surrendered to authorities in Osage County after being indicted on child sexual abuse charges.
Here are some things to know about the case:
Cindy Clemishire, Morris’ accuser, told authorities that Morris’ abuse began on Christmas 1982 when he was staying at her family’s house at age 12 and continued over the next four years.
The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Clemishire, now 55, has done.
In a statement last week after the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office announced the charges, she said: “After almost 43 years, the law has finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he committed against me as a child. Now, it is time for the legal system to hold him accountable.”
Morris has not returned telephone messages left at numbers associated with him, and his attorney, Mack Martin, declined to comment on the charges. Martin told The Associated Press that Morris will plead not guilty.
When asked about the allegations last year by The Christian Post, Morris said in a statement to the publication that when he was in his early 20s he was “involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying.”
“It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong,” he said in the statement. “This behavior happened on several occasions over the next few years.”
Morris was indicted last week by Oklahoma’s multi-county grand jury, an investigative body that meets in secret and is guided by the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office. The indictment was unsealed last week in Osage County.
He has been charged with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. He faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the five charges.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, Oklahoma’s statute of limitations is not applicable in the case because Morris was not a resident of Oklahoma.
Morris was the longtime pastor of Gateway Church, a megachurch located in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Southlake and founded by Morris in 2000. The church has multiple locations in the area and says more than 100,000 people attend each weekend.
Morris, who resigned last year after Clemishire came forward with her allegations, has been politically active. He was among those on former President Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory board, and the church hosted Trump on its Dallas campus in 2020 for a discussion on race relations and the economy.
The church said in a statement last week that its members are praying for Clemishire and “all of those impacted by this terrible situation.”
“We are aware of the actions being taken by the legal authorities in Oklahoma and are grateful for the work of the justice system in holding abusers accountable for their actions,” the statement said.