DALLAS — In a new court filing written by his attorneys, former pastor Robert Morris, the founder of Gateway Church in Southlake, admits his decades-old relationship with a 12-year-old girl was “highly inappropriate,” but says the church knew about it for years and is now using it to break financial promises.
In the motion, filed in Tarrant County district court on May 30, Morris asks a judge to reject Gateway Church’s attempt to pause arbitration and instead compel the case to proceed through Christian arbitration, as agreed in his employment contracts.
Morris resigned from the megachurch in June 2024 after Cindy Clemishire accused him of molesting her on Christmas in 1982 in Hominy, Oklahoma, when she was 12 years old. In March, an Oklahoma grand jury indicted Morris on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child…