Gateway Church’s embattled founder, Robert Morris, has formally pleaded “not guilty” to 5 counts of lewd or indecent acts with a toddler stemming from allegations made by 54-year-old Cindy Clemishire final June. Though some survivor advocates counsel the plea displays a degree of unrepentance, Clemishire sees one thing else.
The Southlake, Texas, megachurch founder, who was indicted by a multi-county grand jury final Wednesday, appeared at an arraignment along with his lawyer Mack Martin of the Martin Regulation Workplace and pleaded not responsible after he acknowledged his receipt of the costs and was suggested of his rights, data from the Osage County Court docket in Oklahoma present.
Morris’ lawyer filed a movement requesting preliminary listening to courtroom orders. Morris stays free on a $50,000 bond and is scheduled to look in courtroom on Could 9 at 10 a.m.
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Martin didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Morris’ plea from The Christian Publish on Tuesday.
Dee Parsons of The Wartburg Watch, which first revealed Clemishire’s allegations of kid sexual abuse in opposition to Morris final June, argued in an X publish Monday morning that she discovered a “not guilty” plea by Morris problematic.
“If he (Morris) pleads ‘not guilty’ we will know exactly how he treats the truth,” she wrote. And he or she will not be alone.
“He does not know truth nor has he repented,” one other survivor advocate recognized as Chrissy replied on the platform. “His plea of not guilty proves this. If he had repented he would accept any earthly punishment coming to him and he certainly wouldn’t lie about his innocence.”
When requested if she was stunned by Morris’ “not guilty” plea, Clemishire instructed CP on Tuesday that she sees it extra as a authorized maneuver than an try to realistically problem her claims in opposition to him.
“It did not surprise me,” Clemishire mentioned. “It is my understanding any attorney would advise their client to plead not guilty. It gives the criminal the opportunity to negotiate a plea.”
Arrest paperwork reviewed by CP present that Morris was formally booked by the Osage County Sheriff’s Workplace in Oklahoma at 7:57 a.m. Monday and was launched minutes afterward bond at 8:11 a.m.
Morris’ give up to authorities on Monday got here simply hours after Gateway Church officers provided prayers to congregants and sought to distance the church from their former chief.
The costs in opposition to the megachurch founder stem from claims Clemishire made final June that Morris sexually abused her over a number of years within the Nineteen Eighties when he was a touring evangelist, starting when she was 12. He resigned from Gateway Church days after the allegations turned public.
“Last November, our elders made it clear that we had drawn a bright line as a church, and we were moving forward,” Nic Lesmeister, Gateway Church’s govt pastor of world outreach, reiterated in an handle Sunday. “And because we’re moving forward, and Gateway is no longer involved in this legal matter, we won’t be continuing to update you on the proceedings of the case, but we’re continuing to pray for everybody that’s involved and affected in this matter.”
Morris faces a potential 100 years most in jail if he’s convicted on all 5 counts of lewd or indecent acts with a toddler and a decide orders sentences to be served consecutively. He is also sentenced to as little as 5 years in jail if convicted on all 5 counts as a result of regulation that was in impact for the crime greater than 35 years in the past, in keeping with the Oklahoma Lawyer Basic’s Workplace.
Present penalties in Oklahoma for lewd acts or indecent acts with a toddler beneath 16 dedicated by an grownup is three to twenty years in jail and a minimum of 25 years in jail if the kid is beneath 12. Repeat offenders may be sentenced to life in jail with out the potential for parole.
“At that time, the range of punishment was 1-20 years in prison,” Carrie Burkhart, deputy press secretary for Oklahoma’s Workplace of the Lawyer Basic instructed CP. “These other restrictions were not in effect in the law that existed at the time of Morris’ alleged crimes.”
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“Well bless their hearts.”
