How a frontier-era law was used to charge Robert Morris in sex abuse scandal

Megachurch founder Robert Morris was indicted by Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond after Cindy Clemishire publicly accused Morris of molesting her in the 1980s

The indictment of former megachurch pastor Robert Morris on child sex abuse charges this week was made possible by an accuser who refused to quit, a novel legal theory and an archaic section of state criminal code that dates to Oklahoma’s origins on the wild frontier.

Morris, a leading national figure in the American evangelical movement and the founder of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, was charged Wednesday with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. The indictment by a multicounty Oklahoma grand jury came nine months after Cindy Clemishire publicly accused Morris of repeatedly molesting her over a four-year span when she was a child in the 1980s.

Clemishire was 12 and dressed in flowery pink pajamas the first time she says Morris touched her. It was Christmas night in her childhood bedroom in Oklahoma. It would be their secret, she recalled him saying afterward.

After Clemishire went public with her account in June, Morris released a statement confessing to what he described as “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady.” Days later, he resigned as senior pastor at Gateway. Following news of his indictment this week, a Gateway spokesperson said church leaders were “grateful for the work of the justice system in holding abusers accountable for their actions.”

Morris didn’t respond to messages requesting comment.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/robert-morris-sex-abuse-oklahoma-ag-gentner-drummond-rcna196285

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