A Dallas-based appeals court has sided with Gateway Church, allowing for discovery to be temporarily halted in a defamation suit against the church.
The lawsuit, filed in June by Cindy Clemishire, a woman who accused Gateway’s founder Robert Morris of sexually abusing her when she was a child, alleged Morris, the church and its elders defamed her by referring to her in statements as a “young lady” and conspired to cover up the abuse. After a Dallas County judge denied the church’s request to dismiss the lawsuit, Gateway filed an appeal on Nov. 14 with the Fifth Court of Appeals, asking the court to halt discovery in the case.
The order, filed Friday, grants the request by halting all court proceedings in the case. No reason was given for the decision to grant the motion, but both parties have until Dec. 29 to submit additional arguments.
In a statement, Ron Breaux, Gateway’s attorney, said the church’s legal team and the church’s elders were pleased by the ruling.
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“Gateway and its leaders simply do not belong in this lawsuit, which asks a secular court to pass judgment on the church’s statements and actions while investigating its former pastor’s misconduct,“ Breaux said. ”As we’ve stated from the beginning, no one in Gateway’s current leadership had knowledge of its former pastor’s criminal behavior, and they have endeavored to lead the church with integrity and accountability during a difficult time.”
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Clemishire’s legal team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gateway’s legal team has previously argued that the suit should be dismissed because the church is protected by the First Amendment from court intervention. In a hearing last month before Judge Emily Tobolowsky, Breaux argued that the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine meant the court did not have authority in the lawsuit, since ruling on the case would mean telling a church how to conduct its business.
After the court ruled for the lawsuit to proceed, Gateway appealed the ruling, arguing that the court abused its discretion by ordering “extensive” discovery in the case, which would have required the church to turn over internal communications to Clemishire’s legal team. In a response, Clemishire’s lawyers said further discovery was warranted, since internal communications already obtained showed Gateway elders and other staff members knew about the abuse before it became public.
Morris, 64, is serving a six-month jail sentence in Osage County, Okla., after he pleaded guilty last month to five counts of lewd or indecent acts to a child in the county. As part of his plea deal, he was given a 10-year suspended sentence, required to pay Clemishire $270,000 in restitution and is required to register as a sex offender for life.
Clemishire, now 55, first publicly accused Morris last year of abusing her for about four-and-a-half years in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12 years old. The allegations led to Morris resigning his position as senior pastor and has had a profound impact on the megachurch he founded in 2000.
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Since the allegations have become public, attendance and donations have dropped at Gateway, leading to multiple rounds of layoffs and a reduction in the number of church services. Multiple elders and staff members were also removed from the church after an investigation by a law firm found they knew of the abuse before Clemishire publicly accused Morris.
In addition to the defamation suit, Gateway is facing a lawsuit from Morris, who alleges he is owed millions of dollars in previously agreed-upon retirement payments for him and his wife, Debbie, as well as a lawsuit from former attendees who allege the church misrepresented how it was spending money received from congregants.