The disgraced pastor of a Texas megachurch who served a a six-month stint for sexually abusing a child in the 1980s was released from jail Tuesday.
Robert Preston Morris, 64, was set free just after midnight from the Oklahoma prison where he was sentenced to last October, according to Osage County Sheriff’s Capt. Matt Clark.
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.
The victim, Cindy Clemishire, did not immediately respond Tuesday to The Post’s request for comment, but said in a statement when Morris was sentenced that “justice 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.”
Jeff Leach, a Dallas-based attorney who represents Clemishire, now in her 50s, said in a statement they are “heartened 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.”
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 against a Clemishire, of Kansas, when she was just 12 years old.
Morris received a 10-year suspended sentence with the first six months to be served in the Osage County Jail.
The horrific acts of abuse began in 1982, when Morris was a traveling evangelist staying in Hominy, Oklahoma with Clemishire’s family, according to Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, whose office prosecuted the case.
In the intervening the years Morris rose in fame and fortune — founding the Gateway Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Southlake in 2000, which became one of the nation’s largest megachurches.
But the creep resigned as its senior pastor in June 2024, when the accusations of abuse were made public.
In a statement released Tuesday by one of Morris’ attorneys, Bill Mateja, he apologized to Clemishire and her family and praised them for coming forward.
“What 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,” Morris said.
“Many years ago, I sought their forgiveness privately, and as Cindy’s father recently noted, he extended that grace to me — a grace I did not deserve and have never taken for granted.”
Clemishire, meanwhile, plans to continue to seek justice through civil courts, Leach said.
“She 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,” he said.
Morris has been politically active and formerly served on President Trump’s evangelical advisory board.
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