DALLAS (TX)
WFAA-TV, ABC-8 [Dallas TX]
September 17, 2026
By Jason Whitely, Matthew Moreno, Rachel Behrndt, Adriana De Alba
Rep. Leach filed a petition after an appeals court dismissed nearly all of Clemishire’s defamation claims against Robert Morris and Gateway Church.
Attorneys for Cindy Clemishire say they’re seeking the Supreme Court of Texas’ input to continue the now-dismissed defamation case against Robert Morris and Gateway Church.
Texas State Representative Jeff Leach, who represents Clemishire, said he filed a petition with the Supreme Court of Texas Thursday on her behalf in her defamation case against Robert Morris, Gateway Church and others.
The move comes after a state appeals court granted a motion in August to dismiss nearly all of Clemishire’s claims against Morris, Gateway Church and the elders who served on the church’s board when the abuse came to light.
The development also comes as Morris re-verified his registration on the Texas Public Sex Offender Website in Palo Pinto County on Tuesday.
In a press conference, Leach said he believes the state appeals court misinterpreted the First Amendment when it ruled against Clemishire. He also claimed its ruling provides a shield against all claims of defamation involving a church.
“Protecting religious liberty is important. But protecting child rapists is not,” Leach said. “Cindy Clemishire deserves her day in a Texas civil court.”
Clemishire said she has lived with the consequences of Robert Morris’ abuse, and the consequences of powerful people choosing to protect him over Clemishire for decades.
“Survivors already carry enormous fears when we tell the truth; we should not also have to fear that the courthouse doors may be closed to us simply because our abuse involves a religious institution,” Clemishire said. “I refuse to accept a legal precedent that could send a victim the same message: stay silent.”
She said she is standing for survivors of abuse who were prevented from speaking out or are continuing to be silenced
“I stand here for every child who will become a victim in the future,” she said.
Next, the Texas Supreme Court will decide if the case merits further review. If it decides that the case is worth taking up, the court will order a full briefing on the merits of the case. The court may then require oral arguments from both sides.
Ronald Breaux, lead counsel for Gateway Church, said the church had no comment on Thursday’s news conference or the request for the Texas Supreme Court to hear the case.
Appeals court throws out many of Clemishire’s claims
A state appeals court on August 19 granted a motion to dismiss nearly all of Cindy Clemishire’s defamation claims against her abuser, Robert Morris, the church he founded and the elders who served on the church’s board when the abuse came to light.
“The ruling issued late Wednesday by the Texas Court of Appeals has deeply troubling consequences for survivors and victims of childhood sexual abuse,” said state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, in a statement to WFAA.
He represents Clemishire and vowed to take her case to the Texas Supreme Court.
“If allowed to stand, it effectively grants religious organizations sweeping immunity from civil accountability — even when they are alleged to have knowingly concealed, enabled, or protected child sexual predators — simply because those actions occurred within a religious institution,” Leach added.
The appeals court ruling sides with Robert Morris’ and Gateway Church’s arguments that the courts do not have jurisdiction to rule on the defamation claims because it would require them to violate the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine that prevents the courts from delving into church discipline and ecclesiastical government.
The suit was brought by Clemishire and her father, Jerry Clemishire, against Morris, his wife and church leadership, claiming they knowingly spread false statements to cover up decades-old abuse and protect the church’s public image.
The defamation claims stem from allegations by Cindy Clemishire, who said Morris began sexually abusing her at her Oklahoma home on Christmas Day in 1982, when she was 12. Clemishire has accused Morris of continuing the abuse for several years.
“We are pleased that the Court of Appeals has dismissed the case against Gateway and the Independent Elders,” Attorney Ron Breaux, who represented Gateway Church, said in a statement. “As the Court’s opinion confirms, this case was never about Gateway. While Gateway grieves and laments Robert’s child sexual abuse of Cindy, that abuse happened 20 years before Gateway was founded. Its current elders did not know of Robert’s crimes until Cindy told her story, at which point they immediately conducted an investigation and acted to ensure that no one complicit in hiding Robert’s past remained in Church leadership.”
In October 2025, Morris pleaded guilty to five felony charges of child sexual abuse in an Oklahoma court. He served a six-month sentence in jail and was released in March 2026. He is now serving a 10-year suspended sentence, or probation, which will be supervised by the State of Texas. He also must register as a sex offender and is ordered to pay his costs of incarceration, including any medical expenses, and $270,000 in restitution to the victim.
The criminal case is not connected with the civil defamation claims.
The Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals, in two opinions posted Aug. 20, granted Gateway Church elders John Willbanks, Kenneth Fambro and Dane Minor their motion to dismiss the defamation claims against them.
“Plaintiffs did not sue Gateway over the tragic abuse itself, but over the Church’s statements about Robert’s misconduct. Those statements were made by a Church seeking to shepherd its congregation and, as the Court held, are therefore protected by the First Amendment,” the statement from Breaux said.
The Clemishires accuse the elders of issuing a communication on June 14, 2024, to church staff addressing her allegations against Morris, and providing information about his misconduct, including a statement from Morris. The statement described the conduct as “kissing and petting” and referred to the minor victim as a “young lady,” despite internal knowledge that Clemishire was a child.
The appeals court did not rule on the validity of Clemishire’s defamation claims but instead ruled on whether the trial court that heard the case had jurisdiction over the subject matter.
The appeals court found that the lower court did not have jurisdiction due to the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine, which prohibits courts from interfering with a church’s management of its internal affairs, according to the lawsuit. Because the June 14 statements made by the church were related to an internal investigation conducted by church leadership, it fell under ecclesiastical abstention, the court found.
Haynes Boone, the law firm representing the elders, said the ruling is a victory for church autonomy.
“We are grateful that the Court’s opinion vindicates and safeguards Gateway’s foundational first liberty, and we continue to pray for healing and peace for Cindy and her family,” Haynes Boone partner Ron Breaux said in a statement.
In a second ruling related to the defamation suit brought by Clemishire against Morris, his wife Deborah Morris and the Robert Morris Evangelistic Association, the court also dismissed all but two defamation claims.
The court again agreed with Morris’ claim that the courts do not have jurisdiction due to the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine.
“Generally, the First Amendment prohibits courts from interfering with a church’s management of its internal affairs,” the ruling reads. “Investigations that relate to the character and conduct of church leaders are inherently ecclesiastical. And claims relating to the publication and communication of the results of the investigation cannot be severed from a church’s policy to investigate its clergy and fall within the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine.”
However, one communication included in Clemeshire’s defamation claims, a May 30, 2025 affidavit signed by Morris and filed in a separate lawsuit between Morris and Gateway Church, is not related to the church’s investigation and therefore will not be automatically dismissed alongside the other claims Clemeshire makes against Morris and Gateway Church.
Leach alleges that the court’s decision will allow bad actors in religious institutions to use the ecclesiastical-abstention doctrine to conceal and enable child abuse.
“Cindy Clemishire and countless other survivors and victims deserve the opportunity to seek justice from not only their abusers, but also from the institutions and individuals that knowingly enabled, concealed, or protected them,” Leach wrote. “We will not stop fighting for that accountability. Religious freedom is sacred. Protecting child rapists is not.”