Gateway founder Robert Morris suffers fall as Cindy Clemishire prepares to fight lawsuit dismissal

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Wednesday, September 16, 2026

A photo of disgraced Gateway Church founder Robert Morris on the Texas Public Sex Offender Registry showing him with a black eye and split lip is the result of a recent fall that sent him to the emergency room with three broken bones in his face, according to his attorney.

“Last week, Pastor Robert was in his garage and leaned over to pick something up. When he raised up, he passed out and fell. He first hit a car door and then fell to the concrete floor. His wife, Debbie, was with him at the time,” Morris’ attorney, Bill Mateja, told The Christian Post in a statement Wednesday.

“An ambulance took Pastor Robert to the emergency room. Although Pastor Robert broke three bones in his face, it was determined that he was otherwise okay. Medical staff believe this might have been caused by the act of raising up coupled with him having recently taken his blood pressure medication on an empty stomach,” he added, noting that Morris is recovering.

Morris, who founded the Southlake, Texas, megachurch in 2000, resigned in June 2024, after 55-year-old Cindy Clemishire accused him of sexually abusing her for 4.5 years in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12. At the time, Morris was serving as a traveling evangelist.

Morris was indicted in March 2025 on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child by a multi-county grand jury in Oklahoma in connection with his actions.

Last October, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months in jail along with a 10-year suspended sentence. Morris, who is also required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, completed his jail term and was released from custody in March.

Morris’ fall also comes shortly after a defamation lawsuit Clemishire filed against him, Gateway Church and other defendants was dismissed by the Fifth Court of Appeals. The court found that proceeding with the case would violate the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine, which prohibits civil courts from getting involved with matters of doctrine or church governance.

In a statement to CP, attorneys for Clemishire announced that they will petition the Texas Supreme Court to review the ruling.

“If leaders of a school, business, summer camp, or youth sports organization can be held accountable for allegedly protecting a sexual predator and defaming his victim, should church leaders be immune from the same civil laws simply because the conduct occurred within a religious institution?” Clemishire’s team asked.

Clemishire’s attorneys, including Texas Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jeff Leach, are expected to host a press conference in front of the Texas Supreme Court on Thursday. They argue that the ruling from the Fifth Court of Appeals stretches a vital constitutional protection far beyond its intended purpose.

“Religious freedom is sacred. Protecting child predators is not,” said Rep. Leach, who is also the author of Trey’s Law and an attorney with Gray Reed, which represents Clemishire. “The First Amendment protects churches from government interference in matters of faith and doctrine, as our country's founders intended. It should never become a shield that allows institutions to protect sexual predators, damage their victims and escape the same accountability we would demand from every other institution in America.”