oklahoma city– Founder of a megachurch in Texas who pleaded guilty Sexual assault A child in his 80s was released Tuesday after spending six months in an Oklahoma prison.
Robert Preston Morris, 64, was released shortly after midnight, Osage County Sheriff’s Capt. Matt Clark said.
Maurice He pleaded guilty last year to five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child as part of a plea agreement under which he received a 10-year suspended sentence with the first six months served in the Osage County Jail.
The abuse began in 1982 when the victim was 12 years old and Morris was a traveling missionary living in Hominy, Oklahoma, with her family, according to Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, whose office investigated the case.
Morris was the senior pastor of Gateway Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Southlake, where he led one of the nation’s largest megachurches until June 2024 when he faced the victim’s allegations. to resign. It was He was indicted last year by an Oklahoma grand jury.
Morris must register as a sex offender and will be supervised by Texas authorities through an interstate compact. He was also ordered to pay the costs of his imprisonment, including any medical expenses, and to compensate the victim.
The victim, Cindy Klimshire, now in her 50s, did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment, but said in a statement when Morris was sentenced that “justice has finally been served, and the man who manipulated, lured, and abused me as an innocent 12-year-old girl will finally be behind bars.” The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Klimshire did.
In a statement issued Tuesday by one of Morris’ attorneys, Bill Mattia, Morris apologized to Klimshire 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. “I have carried the weight of this wrong for a very long time, and I am grateful – truly grateful – that the Klimshire family had the courage to bring this matter to light.
“Many years ago, I privately asked for their forgiveness, and as Cindy’s father recently noted, they extended that blessing to me — a blessing I did not deserve and never took for granted.”
Gateway Church was founded by Maurice in 2000. He was Politically active He previously served on President Donald Trump’s Evangelical Advisory Board. The church hosted Trump on its Dallas campus in 2020 for a rally Discussion about race relations And economics.