A lawyer for disgraced Texas megachurch pastor Robert Morris blamed his accuser for initiating their yearslong “inappropriate sexual” contact when she was just 12, newly released documents show.
Morris, the founder of the Gateway Church in Southlake, resigned in June after admitting to the “inappropriate sexual behavior” with Cindy Clemishire, whom he referred to as “a young lady” despite her saying she was still a preteen at the time.
Morris’ church leaders initially stood by him — and his attorney blamed Clemishire when she threatened to sue Morris in 2007, according to correspondence from the time obtained by NBC News.
“It was your client,” lawyer J. Shelby Sharpe wrote, referring to 12-year-old Clemishire, “who initiated inappropriate behavior by coming into my client’s bedroom and getting in bed with him, which my client should not have allowed to happen.”
Clemishire said in an interview last week with NBC that she had sought $50,000 in restitution from Morris to cover the cost of counseling. Morris’ lawyer countered her request by offering to pay her $25,000 on the condition she sign a nondisclosure agreement, which she refused to do.
When contacted by NBC on Monday, Sharpe said she had no memory of the $25,000 settlement offer or NDA demand and said he no longer represents Morris, who was a one-time spiritual adviser to former President Donald Trump.
Sharpe also denied knowing Clemishire was a child when Morris began engaging in sexual behavior with her, even though the initial correspondence her lawyer sent to him clearly noted she was “twelve years old” when the abuse began.
“I don’t ever remember seeing that,” Sharpe told NBC.
“I can tell you that the letters that you’ve seen, they speak for themselves,” Sharpe told the outlet. “I will not amplify beyond those letters, because they speak for themselves.”
Clemishire came forward with her accusations last month, telling the Wartburg Watch she was groomed for abused by the pastor beginning at age 12 and lasting until she was 16 in the 1980s.
Morris responded in a statement admitting to “inappropriate sexual behavior” and said he had long ago confessed and repented. While Gateway Church leaders stood by him at first, they later rescinded their support of Morris, claiming they did not know the sexual relationship was with a child and soon after he resigned.
“Regretfully, prior to Friday, June 14, the elders did not have all the facts of the inappropriate relationship between Morris and the victim, including her age at the time and the length of the abuse,” the Gateway Church board said in a statement.
“The elders’ prior understanding was that Morris’ extramarital relationship, which he had discussed many times throughout his ministry, was with a ‘young lady’ and not abuse of a 12-year-old child.
“Even though it occurred many years before Gateway was established, as leaders of the church, we regret we did not have the information that we now have.”
The board, which oversee one of the biggest megachurches in the US, with 100,000 members, said they were left “heartbroken and appalled” by the allegation, and offered an apology to Clemishire and her family.
