Members of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, are accusing the church, founder Robert Morris and founding elder Steve Dulin of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970.
The RICO charge was made in an amended class-action lawsuit filed against the parties on Monday, accusing them of misappropriating millions of dollars in donations made by thousands of members over more than a decade.
RICO is a federal law designed to combat organized crime by holding leaders responsible for the criminal activities of their organizations. In their amended complaint, initially filed a year ago, Gateway Church members Katherine Leach, Garry K. Leach, Mark Browder, Terri Browder and those similarly situated (former Gateway Church members and tithers), added the RICO charge against all three defendants. They also accused Morris and Dulin, in their individual capacities, of fraud and intentional and negligent misrepresentation.
“Defendants, through their actions, have engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity as defined by 18 U.S.C. § 1961(5), which includes at least two acts of racketeering activity within a ten-year period,” the amended lawsuit alleges.
The members accuse Gateway Church, Morris and Dulin of mail fraud and wire fraud.
“Defendants devised and intended to devise a scheme to defraud Plaintiffs and the putative class by falsely representing that 15% of all tithe dollars would be distributed to global missions and Jewish ministry partners, and that tithers could receive a return of their tithes for any reason,” the lawsuit alleges. “In furtherance of this scheme, Defendants used the United States mail and interstate wire communications to disseminate false and misleading information to Plaintiffs and the putative class, including but not limited to, written communications, emails, and online statements.”
The amended complaint was filed about a month after U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant rejected a motion by Gateway Church to dismiss the lawsuit.
The Gateway Church members allege that the defendants persuaded them and others to donate to the ministry by stating that 15% of their donations would go toward global missions and Jewish ministry partners. They say Gateway Church and Morris guaranteed they could get a refund of their donations if they were dissatisfied with how the church allocated the funds.
The lawsuit alleges that they have not been able to substantiate the church’s use of donations through transparent accounting. Both Gateway Church and Morris have denied those allegations and asked the court to dismiss their lawsuit, with support from First Liberty Institute in an Amicus Curiae. Mazzant rejected that effort.
The church members state that their lawsuit is about holding church leaders accountable, saying it was a “last resort” after multiple attempts to achieve transparency failed.
“This lawsuit is about transparency, brought by members whose concern is not money in their pockets but rather biblical stewardship,” they note.
“On information and belief, Defendants did not use 15% of all money donated for the intended purpose as represented by Robert Morris and Gateway leaders. Attempts to seek transparency and proof that money did, in fact, go to global missions and Jewish ministry partners have been rebuffed by Gateway elders. This lawsuit is a means of last resort and being pursued with a heavy heart.”
Morris, who founded Gateway Church in 2000, resigned in June 2024 amid an allegation that he sexually abused now 55-year-old Cindy Clemishire for years in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12, and continued with the abuse for 4.5 years after that. He was subsequently indicted on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child by a multi-county grand jury in Oklahoma in connection with that case earlier this year. On Oct. 2, Morris pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to a six-month jail term, along with 10 years suspended.
“He simply accepted responsibility for his crime from the mid-1980s and pled guilty. He pled guilty because he wanted to accept responsibility for his conduct. While he believes that he long since accepted responsibility in the eyes of God — and that Gateway Church was a manifestation of that acceptance — he readily accepted responsibility in the eyes of the law by virtue of his guilty plea,” Morris’ lawyer Bill Mateja said after Morris’ hearing.
“He also pled guilty for the sake of finality,” Mateja added. “Not only did he want to bring this legal matter to a quick end for his own sake and that of his family, he brought it to a quick end for the sake of Ms. Clemishire and her family and he sincerely hopes that his plea and jail sentence coupled with probation brings Ms. Clemishire and her family the finality that they might need.”
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