{"id":229794,"date":"2026-04-01T06:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T06:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/229794\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T06:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T06:01:13","slug":"disgraced-texas-megachurch-pastor-free-after-6-months-in-jail-for-sexually-abusing-12-year-old-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/229794\/","title":{"rendered":"Disgraced Texas megachurch pastor free after 6 months in jail for sexually abusing 12-year-old girl"},"content":{"rendered":"

The disgraced pastor of a Texas megachurch who served a six-month stint for sexually abusing a child <\/a>in the 1980s was released from jail Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Robert Preston Morris, 64, was set free just after midnight from the Oklahoma prison where he was sentenced to in October, <\/a>according to Osage County Sheriff\u2019s Capt. Matt Clark.<\/p>\n

Morris must register as a sex offender and will be supervised by Texas authorities. He also was ordered to pay his costs of incarceration, including any medical expenses, and restitution to the victim, Cindy Clemishire.<\/p>\n

Texas megachurch founder Robert Morris is escorted out of the building after pleading guilty to lewd and indecent acts with a child at the Osage County Courthouse in Pawhuska, Okla., Oct. 2, 2025. AP<\/p>\n

Clemishire did not immediately respond Tuesday to The Post\u2019s request for comment, but said in a statement when Morris was sentenced that \u201cjustice has finally been served, and the man who manipulated, groomed and abused me as a 12-year-old innocent girl is finally going to be behind bars.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jeff Leach, a Dallas-based attorney who represents Clemishire, now in her 50s, said in a statement they are \u201cheartened to know that he (Morris) still has nearly ten years of probation as well as a lifetime ahead of being publicly registered as a sex offender.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morris was indicted last year by an Oklahoma grand jury. He later pleaded guilty to five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child for a four-year pattern of sick abuse<\/a> against a Clemishire, of Kansas, when she was just 12 years old.<\/p>\n

Robert Preston Morris in a booking photo released by the Osage County, Oklahoma, Sheriff\u2019s Office. AP<\/p>\n

Profile mugshot of Morris, who said he is \u201cdeeply sorry\u201d for his actions. AP<\/p>\n

Morris received a 10-year suspended sentence with the first six months to be served in the Osage County Jail.<\/p>\n

The horrific acts of abuse began in 1982<\/a>, when Morris was a traveling evangelist staying in Hominy, Oklahoma with Clemishire\u2019s family, according to Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, whose office prosecuted the case.<\/p>\n

In the intervening years, Morris rose in fame and fortune \u2014 founding the Gateway Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Southlake in 2000, which became one of the nation\u2019s largest megachurches.<\/p>\n

Robert Morris, left, and fellow minister Bishop Harry Jackson flank Donald Trump at a Maryland event. AP<\/p>\n

But the creep resigned as its senior pastor in June 2024, when the accusations of abuse were made public.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement released Tuesday by one of Morris\u2019 attorneys, Bill Mateja, he apologized to Clemishire and her family and praised them for coming forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I did to Cindy decades ago was wrong. There is no other word for it, and there is no excuse for it. I am deeply sorry,\u201d Morris said.<\/p>\n

People gather outside Gateway Church in protest following allegations against Morris. TNS<\/p>\n

\u201cMany years ago, I sought their forgiveness privately, and as Cindy\u2019s father recently noted, he extended that grace to me \u2014 a grace I did not deserve and have never taken for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clemishire, meanwhile, plans to continue to seek justice through civil courts, Leach said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe rightfully seeks full accountability not only for Robert and the crimes he committed against her as a young child, but also for the other individuals who harbored him, covered for him, lied for him and even in some cases attacked Cindy on his behalf,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Morris has been politically active and formerly served on President Trump\u2019s evangelical advisory board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The disgraced pastor of a Texas megachurch who served a six-month stint for sexually abusing a child in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[294,2926,67688,6131,26822,27,29,28,734],"class_list":{"0":"post-229794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-oklahoma","10":"tag-pastors","11":"tag-sexual-abuse","12":"tag-sexual-assaults","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-headlines","15":"tag-texas-news","16":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}