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Robert Preston Morris, a former Texas megachurch pastor and former spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump accused of child sexual abuse, has surrendered to Oklahoma authorities. Morris, 63, turned himself over to officials in Osage County on Monday after a grand jury indicted him last week with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office told The Associated Press.
Morris turned himself in before 8 a.m. CST, The Dallas Morning News reported, citing the Osage County Sheriff’s Office. The former pastor surrendered his passport and was released on a $50,000 bond, Osage County officials told the outlet.
Morris' attorney, Mack Martin, declined to comment on the charges but told the AP that he anticipated entering a not guilty plea on his client's behalf.
In 2024, Morris resigned as pastor of the Dallas-area Gateway Church after a woman accused him of sexually abusing her in the 1980s, when she was 12 years old. As NBC News reported:
The woman, Cindy Clemishire, told NBC News that Morris, now a senior pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, was staying with her family on Christmas night in 1982. She was 12; he was 21. Clemishire, now 54, said he invited her to his room, where he instructed her to lie on her back. He then touched her breasts and felt under her panties, Clemishire said — the first of several similar encounters that would span the next 4½ years, she said.
In a statement released to WFAA-TV in Dallas last year, Morris admitted he was “involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady.”
“It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong,” Morris said at the time. “In March of 1987, this situation was brought to light, and it was confessed and repented of. I submitted myself to the Elders of Shady Grove Church and the young lady’s father. They asked me to step out of ministry and receive counseling and freedom ministry, which I did. Since that time, I have walked in purity and accountability in this area.”
After establishing Gateway Church in 2000, the Texas pastor increasingly involved himself in local, state and national politics. He was named to the first Trump presidential campaign's spiritual advisory board in 2016. “I have such tremendous respect and admiration for this group and I look forward to continuing to talk about the issues important to Evangelicals, and all Americans, and the common sense solutions I will implement when I am President,” Trump said in a statement at the time.
In 2020, Morris’ church hosted Trump for a discussion on race relations and the economy, during which the president referred to the former pastor as a “great” person with a “great reputation.”
After Clemishire publicly accused Morris last year, Trump 2020 campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said Trump had not been aware of the allegations, NBC News reported.
According to Oklahoma’s attorney general’s office, Morris could face up to 20 years in prison for each of the five charges. He’s expected to make an initial appearance before a judge on May 9.