A court hearing in the criminal case against Robert Morris, the founder of Southlake-based Gateway Church, one of the nation’s largest congregations, was canceled before it began Thursday morning.
Morris appeared in court and waived his right to the preliminary hearing, court records show. He faces charges of sexually abusing a child in the 1980s. He has entered a plea of not guilty.
Morris is due back in court for a district court arraignment on Thursday, Oct. 2. In Oklahoma, a district court arraignment is “a formal reading of a criminal charging document in the presence of the defendant … in the presence of the District Court judge.” At the hearing, “the defendant can plead, ask for additional time, ask for a motion hearing, or set the case for trial.”
The charges against Robert Morris
The alleged abuse started in 1982 when the victim, Cindy Clemishire, was 12 years old and Morris was a traveling evangelist staying in Hominy, Oklahoma, with her family, according to the Oklahoma attorney general’s office. The abuse allegedly continued for four years…