Former Texas megachurch pastor sued $1M for denying alleged sexual abuse of girl
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A woman is suing a former Texas megachurch pastor for more than $1 million, alleging he denied her claim that he sexually assaulted her when she was just 12 years old.
Cindy Clemishire and her father, Jerry Lee Clemishire, filed the lawsuit against Gateway Church founder Robert Morris and others for libel, malice, defamation, slander, failure to report, civil conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and unjust enrichment, reports Fox affiliate KDFW.
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The lawsuit comes three months after the 63-year-old Morris was charged with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child.
The suit, filed last week in Dallas County District court, claims Cindy, now 53, met Morris in 1981 at her Oklahoma church and both families became close.
According to the claim, Cindy alleged that Morris touched her inappropriately while he stayed at the Clemishire home in 1982 and that the sexual abuse continued for more than four years.
The court filings stated Morris’s actions “amounted to criminal sexual contact with a child, rape, and continuous sexual abuse of a child.”
It’s alleged Morris and his cohorts were dismissive of the sexual assault allegations, downplaying his actions as an “inappropriate relationship,” an “indiscretion,” “his transgressions,” “his moral failures” and an “extramarital relationship.”
Morris is alleged to have told his parishioners and public that Cindy consented to the acts and that she actually wanted to sleep with him.
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The suit also claims that Morris, his wife, the church and others reaped financial benefits from hiding the alleged sexual abuses while harming “the plaintiffs’ reputation and exposing them to public hatred, contempt or ridicule, and financial injury, as well as impeaching their honesty, integrity, virtue and reputation.”
Morris resigned from the church in June 2024 after reports alleging he molested Cindy when she was a child became public.
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