Things to know about the former megachurch pastor charged with child sexual abuse

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma woman recalled a traveling evangelist who preached at her family's church in Osage County more than 40 years ago.

The preacher, along with his wife and son, eventually befriended the woman's family and stayed in their home, she said. That's when the woman alleged the sexual abuse began, in 1982 when she was just 12 years old.

On Monday, former Texas megachurch pastor Robert Preston Morris, 63, surrendered to authorities in Osage County after being indicted on child sexual abuse charges.

Here are some things to know about the case:

Cindy Clemishire, Morris' accuser, told authorities that Morris' abuse began on Christmas 1982 when he was staying at her family's house at age 12 and continued over the next four years.

The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Clemishire, now 55, has done.

In a statement last week after the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office announced the charges, she said: “After almost 43 years, the law has finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he committed against me as a child. Now, it is time for the legal system to hold him accountable.”

Morris has not returned telephone messages left at numbers associated with him, and his attorney, Mack Martin, declined to comment on the charges. Martin told The Associated Press that Morris will plead not guilty.

When asked about the allegations last year by The Christian Post, Morris said in a statement to the publication that when he was in his early 20s he was “involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying.”

“It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong,” he said in the statement. “This behavior happened on several occasions over the next few years.”

Morris was indicted last week by Oklahoma's multi-county grand jury, an investigative body that meets in secret and is guided by the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office. The indictment was unsealed last week in Osage County.

He has been charged with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. He faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the five charges.

According to the Attorney General's Office, Oklahoma's statute of limitations is not applicable in the case because Morris was not a resident of Oklahoma.

Morris was the longtime pastor of Gateway Church, a megachurch located in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Southlake and founded by Morris in 2000. The church has multiple locations in the area and says more than 100,000 people attend each weekend.

Morris, who resigned last year after Clemishire came forward with her allegations, has been politically active. He was among those on former President Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory board, and the church hosted Trump on its Dallas campus in 2020 for a discussion on race relations and the economy.

The church said in a statement last week that its members are praying for Clemishire and “all of those impacted by this terrible situation.”

“We are aware of the actions being taken by the legal authorities in Oklahoma and are grateful for the work of the justice system in holding abusers accountable for their actions,” the statement said.

In this Monday, March 17, 2025, booking photo released by the Osage County, Oklahoma, Sheriff's Office, shows Robert Preston Morris. (Osage County, Oklahoma, Sheriff's Office via AP)

FILE - Pastor Robert Morris applauds during a roundtable discussion at Gateway Church Dallas Campus, Thursday, June 11, 2020, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

DENVER (AP) — Two men escaped from a Denver area immigration detention center apparently after its back doors opened during a power outage, police said.

Despite claims by immigration officials, police in Aurora said they weren't notified until early Wednesday, about two hours after the men were discovered missing from the facility, which they said was too late to help.

In a statement sent to The Associated Press Thursday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the men, who had previously been held in Colorado jails on unspecified charges, were still at large and a search was ongoing. It also said law enforcement authorities were notified immediately about the escape but declined to help in the search.

Federal officials and Republican lawmakers have criticized what are often known as sanctuary policies in places including Denver that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Colorado also has state laws that restrict cooperation. However, Aurora police said they have an agreement with the GEO Group, the private company that runs the detention center, to help with escapes but only when they are notified within 15 minutes of an escape.

A facility staffer called 911 to report a possible escape at around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday but didn’t provide enough details, prompting a police commander to call back to get more information, Aurora police said in a timeline based on its records and information obtained from GEO Group. Since it was later determined the escape was believed to have happened around 10 p.m. Tuesday, an officer did not go to the facility to follow up until around 5 a.m. Wednesday, according to the timeline.

An assistant administrator told the officer they realized the men — one from Mexico and one from Venezuela — were missing during an emergency headcount conducted because of the power outage, the officer's report said. Staff believe they escaped through doors leading to a soccer field, it said.

“In order for us to effectively respond to and assist our federal partners with calls for service, we need to receive timely and accurate information. That unfortunately did not happen, as demonstrated by the facts of this incident," Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said in statement.

Chamberlain has expressed a willingness to work with ICE, which helped in the department's investigation into a violent December kidnapping and assault believed to involve members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

The state, meanwhile, issued a notice to law enforcement agencies to “be on the lookout” for the men but ICE did not ask for any other help, a spokesperson for Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, Ally Sullivan, said in a statement.

“We continue to urge ICE to be transparent with the state and the public about this incident as it develops, including whether any escapees are a danger to the public,” Sullivan said.

A spokesperson for ICE did not immediately respond to a request for details about the search or to comment on the police account of what happened.

The Florida-based GEO Group did not respond to an email request seeking comment about the escape.

FILE - Visitors walk out of the GEO Detention Center, April 3, 2020, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, file)