A Dallas appeals court ordered a district judge to dismiss most claims against former Gateway Church Senior Pastor Robert Morris, his wife, the Southlake megachurch and three elders in a defamation lawsuit filed by Cindy Clemishire, whom Morris sexually abused as a child, and her father, Jerry Lee Clemishire.
The Fifth Court of Appeals on Wednesday conditionally granted all or part of two mandamus petitions in separate opinions involving Gateway, Elders John D. Willbanks III, Kenneth W. Fambro II and Dane Minor, and the Morris family. A companion opinion addressed Morris, Deborah Morris and the Robert Morris Evangelistic Association.
The August 19 orders give the trial judge 30 days to vacate her earlier denial and grant the covered motions. The appellate court said it would issue formal writs only if the judge fails to comply.
The court did not decide whether the disputed statements were defamatory. “Our holding rests solely on jurisdiction,” Justice Mike Lee wrote in the Gateway opinion.
First Amendment shields church investigation
The Clemishires sued in June 2025 over statements connected to a June 14, 2024, internal communication to Gateway staff. They alleged that the communication falsely framed the rape of a 12-year-old child as “inappropriate sexual behavior” with “a young lady” and falsely described the family’s response to Morris.
The panel held that deciding whether Gateway and its leaders acted with the required fault would force a secular court to examine what church leaders knew, how they investigated Morris and how they reached their conclusions.
The judges found those questions “inextricably intertwined” with church governance and therefore outside the trial court’s jurisdiction under the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine.
The court also rejected the argument that Gateway’s structure or the later public circulation of its internal communication removed First Amendment protection. It held that an autonomous church governed by elders receives the same constitutional protection as a hierarchical denomination.
Gateway attorney Ron Breaux said the decision concerns church autonomy, not the abuse itself. “Nothing about this decision diminishes what happened to her,” Breaux said, according to a report.
Which claims survive
The Gateway ruling requires dismissal of all remaining claims against the church, Willbanks, Fambro and Minor that rest on the June 14 communication. The companion opinion requires dismissal of every claim against Deborah Morris and every claim against Robert Morris except those arising from a May 30, 2025, affidavit.
Morris filed the affidavit in separate Tarrant County litigation between him and Gateway. The appellate court said it did not arise from Gateway’s investigation or related communications.
The panel declined to decide Morris’ separate argument that the judicial-proceedings privilege bars claims based on the affidavit because he had not properly presented that argument to the trial court.
Claims against the Robert Morris Evangelistic Association remain because it had not properly presented an ecclesiastical-abstention challenge below. The panel did not reach the merits. The decisions also leave claims against other defendants unresolved.
Criminal conviction remains untouched
Morris pleaded guilty on October 2, 2025, to five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. The abuse began in December 1982, when Clemishire was 12, and continued over the next four years, according to the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office.
Morris left the Osage County Jail on March 31 after serving six months. He must register as a sex offender and remains under Texas supervision for the balance of his 10-year suspended sentence, as The Dallas Express previously reported.
State Rep. Jeff Leach (R-District 67), one of Clemishire’s attorneys, said the legal team will continue challenging the appellate ruling, according to a report. “Religious freedom is sacred. Protecting child rapists is not,” Leach said.
Provided by Dallas Express
