A Dallas County District Court judge has ruled that Cindy Clemishire’s defamation lawsuit filed earlier this summer against Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, and its embattled founder, Robert Morris, can proceed despite the defendants’ efforts to have the case dismissed.
“After reviewing the Pleas, Plaintiffs’ responses, applicable law, and arguments of counsel, and reviewing evidence, the Court finds that the Pleas should be DENIED,” Judge Emily Tobolowsky wrote in a two-page order Tuesday.
Morris was given a 6-month prison term and a 10-year suspended sentence during a hearing in Osage County Court, Oklahoma, on Oct. 2, after he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing Clemishire, 55, for 4.5 years in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12. At the time, Morris, who founded Gateway Church in 2000, was serving as a traveling evangelist.
Clemishire and her father, Jerry Lee Clemishire, are seeking more than $1 million in damages, alleging that Morris and Gateway Church leaders publicly mischaracterized the abuse she suffered as a consensual “relationship” with a “young lady” instead of the sexual assault of a child after the abuse was made public in 2024.
In an affidavit dated Nov. 6, Clemishire said statements made by both Morris and former Gateway Church elders minimized her sexual assault, which has caused her ongoing attacks from Gateway Church followers and members of the public.
“On June 14, 2024, Robert Morris made a public statement to The Christian Post wherein he falsely minimized his rape of me, referring to it only as ‘inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady,'” Clemishire wrote.
“Shortly thereafter in June of 2024, the Elders of Gateway Church issued their own statement to Gateway staff wherein they asserted that ‘Pastor Robert has been open and forthright about a moral failure he had over 35 years ago when he was in his twenties’ and republished Robert Morris’s statement that he made to The Christian Post,” she continued.
“These statements were false and misleading because they minimized Robert Morris’s rape of me, a 12-year-old child, as something that was only ‘inappropriate’ rather than criminal and implied the sex acts were consensual by classifying me as a ‘young lady.'”
In addition to Morris, his wife Deborah, Gateway’s board of elders, the Robert Morris Evangelistic Association Inc., and media executive Lawrence Swicegood, the lawsuit also names current and former elders of the church as individual defendants. They are Thomas H. Miller, Jr., John D. “Tra” Willbanks, III, Kevin Grove, Jeremy Carrasco, Kenneth W. Fambro, II, Gayland Lawshe, Dane Minor and Steve Dulin.
Before the motions to dismiss by the defendants for a variety of reasons, the Clemishires had attempted to conduct discovery in the case under Level 3 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. Gateway Church sought to dismiss the lawsuit by invoking the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine, which posits that secular courts lack jurisdiction in matters of religion.
Gateway Church leaders also argued that internal communications and statements made by the church about the sexual abuse to members are protected under that doctrine. Tobolowsky, however, was not convinced as Clemishire passionately detailed how she was harmed.
“Ever since these defamatory statements were published, I have been harassed by Gateway’s followers and members of the public, resulting in significant anxiety, grief, and mental anguish,” she wrote in her affidavit.
“For example, I have received vulgar, threatening, and humiliating messages via text and social media accusing me of lying, that I’m at fault, that I should forgive Robert Morris, that I’m money hungry, that Robert Morris was innocent and I ruined his career, that I’m seeking attention, and calling me very hateful and disturbing names.”
Clemishire, who works as a licensed real estate agent with Copper Creek Real Estate in Oklahoma, stated that since June 2024, she has also faced ridicule from Gateway’s followers and members of the public, which has had a negative impact on her professionally.
“My profession depends heavily on trust, reputation, and online visibility. I cannot conduct business online as a normal real estate agent due to the harassment I receive from Gateway’s followers and members of the public,” she explained.
“Defendants’ defamatory statements about me have caused me great emotional distress and irreparably ruined my reputation, both personally and professionally. This emotional stress has continued ever since Defendants made those false and defamatory statements and is ongoing daily with anxiety, loss of sleep, loss of appetite, loss of confidence, and depression,” she added. “The ongoing online harassment serves as a daily reminder of the assault and public defamation, prolonging and intensifying my suffering.”
Contact: leonardo.blair@christianpost.com Follow Leonardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair Follow Leonardo Blair on Facebook: LeoBlairChristianPost
