Gateway Church settled two lawsuits, including one alleging child sex abuse, this year

Gateway Church settled multiple lawsuits in the months before and days after founder and lead pastor Robert Morris resigned over the revelation of child sexual abuse he was accused of in the 1980s, according to court documents.

Court records show the North Texas megachurch, based in Southlake, settled at least two lawsuits in April and June of this year. One suit alleged that a different case of sexual abuse of a minor by a member of the North Texas megachurch was covered up by several pastors. The other suit claimed the church discriminated against an employee, who said she was sexually harassed by her boss. Church officials reached agreements with the plaintiffs in both cases but said the settlements were not admissions of wrongdoing, according to court documents.

The suit alleging child sexual abuse was filed in a Tarrant County district court in 2020 by a mother on behalf of a child, according to documents obtained by the Star-Telegram. It says the abuse happened at the hands of an unnamed member of the church on March 14, 2018, at the child’s home.

That suit was settled by the church in April, about two months before Cindy Clemishire, who is now in her 50s, went public with her story of abuse at the hands of Morris in the ‘80s. Clemishire told religious watchdog blog The Wartburg Watch that Morris sexually abused her in her own home beginning when she was 12 until she was 16, when Morris was caught.

Morris stepped away from ministry and received counseling from the church where he worked during that time before returning to ministry, he said in a statement released to Gateway Church officials after Wartburg Watch published the allegations. In the statement, which was leaked on social media, he admitted the abuse and said that he touched and kissed Clemishire when she was an underage girl and he was in his 20s.

Morris resigned from his position June 18.

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The suit settled in April names multiple leaders of the church who became aware of the alleged abuse of another child and says they had conversations with the alleged perpetrator and did nothing to report the abuse to authorities or even notify the child’s mother.

Suit alleges conspiracy to cover up abuse

The 2020 suit claims Gateway leaders knew about the abuse after the child made an outcry to a youth minister. That youth leader went to others in the church, including pastors. They had conversations and spoke with the alleged abuser but did not inform law enforcement or the child’s parents, the suit states.

It wasn’t until after the allegations were made public that church leadership spoke with the child’s parents, according to the lawsuit. When the mother learned her daughter was a victim of abuse, she contacted police in Haltom City. Church leaders were accused in the suit of retaliation against the mother for going to police, having her removed from ministry positions and encouraging others to ostracize her.

Church leaders “embarked on a concerted campaign to conceal, misconstrue and discredit the assault accusations while the active criminal investigation was ongoing,” the suit reads.

The leaders’ actions led to the “immense shame and embarrassment, and emotional distress” for the girl and her mother, according to the suit. The church’s influence tainted the investigation and leadership coached the alleged perpetrator in what to say to authorities, with weeks of active attempts to conceal the abuse leading to the degradation of evidence and hindering the investigation, the suit alleges.

The lawsuit sought between $200,000 and $5 million. Court documents describing the settlement have redacted the amount paid to settle. The terms of the settlement are confidential, court documents state.

Discrimination suit allegations

Another lawsuit filed in January 2023 in federal court in Fort Worth alleged that an employee of the church’s North Richland Hills campus endured sexual harassment, a pay cut, a hostile work environment and disparaging comments about her appearance while undergoing treatment for cancer. She was made to sit in her boss’ office with the door closed and blinds shut while he talked with her about personal, non-work topics, she said. He asked her to take off her wig she was wearing as a result of cancer treatment and would talk about how she didn’t look good, the suit states.

She was eventually fired, according to the suit.

A court document filed on June 21 states that the parties reached an agreement to dismiss the case and that all sides would pay their own attorney fees, but did not say if there was financial compensation.

The suit claims the pastor the plaintiff answered to would ask her if she was single, comment that she smelled good and bought her gifts. It says that about a month into working, her boss complained to her about his marriage and his wife when the two of them were alone during a meeting.

She reported his behavior in August 2018 to another pastor and was told she just shouldn’t be alone with him, the suit alleges.

In 2019, the pastor to whom she complained asked her to apply for a “care pastor” position that would be a pay increase and more responsibility, according to the lawsuit. At his encouragement she applied for the position and was told during the interview that she was more qualified than other candidates. But, she was told, they wanted to hire a man because they believed the church’s congregation would respond better to a man.

That happened multiple times, with the woman applying for positions, being interviewed and then told they would choose a man for the position instead, according to the lawsuit.

When the woman again complained to another pastor about the way her boss was treating her, she was told she was being insubordinate, the lawsuit alleged. While still working for him, she was required to attend weekly one-on-one meetings where he would ask her about her personal life, “making inappropriate remarks, and attempting to physically touch her,” the suit reads.

“In one of these meetings, (her boss) made a physical advance on (her) and talked to her about ‘love languages’ and how the two of them could do physical touch in his office and he could be her spiritual mentor,” according the lawsuit. She “rejected (his) advances and told him she was uncomfortable with him. This continued until (she) was out on FMLA with a medical flare-up from January 2020 to March 2020.”

In 2021, during a worship service at one of the church’s campuses, the pastor for whom she worked told her he wanted to make sure he wasn’t “casting pearls before swine,” according the the suit. Over the years, she made multiple complaints about the way she was talked to and treated, at one point being required to read out her complaints in front of him.

Later in 2021, after returning from medical leave, she was fired during a Zoom meeting in which she was offered six months’ pay and benefits through April 2022, and a “separation letter” saying that church officials had reviewed her case and decided she couldn’t work there anymore, she said. The pastor she worked for also was fired but he received two years worth of severance pay, according to the suit.

The church denied all the allegations in the suit in a response filed with the court.