(OK)
CHVN 95.1 FM [Winnipeg, MB, Canada]
October 15, 2025
By Sylvia St. Cyr
The following story discusses sexual abuse and may be disturbing to some readers.
After years of sharing her story with no action taken, Cindy Clemishire has closure after reading a statement in court at the trial of the man who abused her, former pastor Robert Morris.
Morris started grooming and sexually molesting Clemishire when she was just 12 years old, when he and his wife and children were staying in their home. Morris was also a pastor at the time. The abuse continued, according to Clemishire, for four years.
The 64-year-old appeared in court on Oct. 2 and pleaded guilty on all five counts. Morris will serve six months in the Osage County jail and then be on probation for nine years and six months, according to a plea agreement outlined by Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond. He also must pay $270,000 in restitution to Clemishire.
Facing her abuser
During the hearing, Clemishire made a public statement in court.
“In my victim statement, I told Robert that, not only did he steal my innocence and basically murdered the woman I was supposed to grow into, he basically built this twisted framework on a foundation that my parents had built with me that was very solid,” said Clemishire in a CBN interview last week. “He began building a framework that was very twisted on what love is, and it taught me that abuse is love.”
Clemishire’s father joined her in the courtroom, holding her hand in support.
“It was emotional to be sitting next to my dad and holding his hand, knowing the immense feelings that were going through him. He loved Robert. We were like family. I know [it] was extremely painful for him.”
When Clemishire read her victim statement aloud, Morris didn’t look up once. He simply stared down at the table. Clemishire shared that she “never felt a sense of remorse” from him.
Freedom to finally be heard
In 2024, Clemishire shared all the details of what had happened to her publicly, which set things in motion, including Morris’s resignation as lead pastor of Gateway Church Southlake, Texas. However, Clemishire also stated that she sent a letter to the elders of the church back in 2005. No action was taken at that time.
“When you tell so many people that have authority in that religious sector, and some pretty high-up people know, some of the highest up in that part of our religious world, and they just continue to sweep it under the rug,” said Clemishire. “They say he’s been restored, they don’t ask about my restoration, they don’t pursue helping me find restoration or my family.”
The 54-year-old shared that watching nothing be done for years hampered her faith in organized religion, especially one that talks about helping out vulnerable people. Thankfully, Clemishire always stood on her Christian faith regardless.
“I go straight back to my childhood foundation that my parents gave me. My dad, his faith is in Jesus, not in church. He became a Christian as an adult. So his foundation was really in the Word of God, not in church, and so he gave that same foundation to us, and I just was never taught to believe in man. I was taught to believe the Word of God. I was taught to have a personal relationship with Jesus — to pray, and that’s what I’ve done my whole adult life, even in very difficult times.”
Choosing forgiveness
Clemishire continues to work towards forgiving Morris and the way his abuse affected her life.
“Again, 70 times seven. I think it’s because the wound — something triggers something, and we have to forgive again, and that forgiveness is not for him. It is for me. It is not about his life, and if I ever say, ‘I forgive Robert,’ that doesn’t mean I like him, that doesn’t mean I condone what he did, that doesn’t mean that I think he should be a free man roaming the earth without any consequences. It has nothing to do with Robert’s life, and has everything to do with mine and my relationship with God, and my relationship with my friends and family.”
Last Thursday, after the judgement was doled out to Morris, Clemishire felt her own transformation.
“The only way I can verbalize what happened in that courtroom was, when he walked out in handcuffs and I stood up, I felt like I had been wearing a costume my entire adult life and living out that character. And that costume came off of me and stayed on the bench I was sitting on in that courtroom, and I walked out as the woman that God actually created me to be.”
The Oklahoma court system involves victims in the process to make sure the final verdict rests well with all involved.