Robert Morris Victim Cindy Clemishire Speaks Out After Guilty Plea: 'Very Twisted'

Revelations that Gateway Church founder Robert Morris molested a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s sent shockwaves throughout Christian circles last summer. More than a year later, Morris pleaded guilty last week to the crime, admitting to five felony counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. As part of a plea agreement, he received a 10-year suspended sentence and will spend six months in jail, register as a sex offender, and pay $270,000 in restitution.

Cindy Clemishire, Morris' victim who will be paid these monies, was in the courtroom and read a statement directly to Morris detailing the negative impact of his conduct on her life. "In my victim statement, I told Robert that, not only did he steal my innocence and basically murdered the woman I was supposed to grow into ... he basically built this twisted framework on a foundation that my parents had built with me that was very solid," Clemishire said. "He began building a framework that was very twisted on what love is, and it ... more taught me that abuse is love."

As Clemishire grew up, she said this dynamic complicated her relationships and her expectations of how a man should treat her. "Robert did not do anything but teach me that my body was not sacred," she said. "And that had a major impact on my adult life." Clemishire said the entire courtroom experience was deeply emotional. Clemishire also said it was "empowering" to finally be heard by the "world and the law." She was specifically able to deliver a victim statement directly to Morris' face — but she said he didn't react. "He never looked up," she said. "He was looking at the table. He was sitting at a table, and he was looking directly down at the table." Ultimately, Clemishire said she "never felt a sense of remorse." She said Morris had to read the indictments and plead, and that he had the opportunity to openly apologize, but did not do so himself.

As for Morris' criminal case and the plea deal, Clemishire said Oklahoma includes victims in the process to ensure they feel OK with the end result. "There was a lot of conversation around it, a few hours spent together, a couple of different times, processing through all that and understanding all the details behind the plea," she said. "And then having to come to terms with, 'This is what's best for me' — not what's best for everyone else watching the story, not what's best for Robert, but what's best for me."

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