SOUTHLAKE (TX)
The Roys Report [Chicago IL]
August 8, 2025
By Mark A. Kellner
Three former Gateway Church elders told a Dallas court they didn’t defame a sexual abuse victim of disgraced church founder, Robert Morris, despite knowing she was only 12 years old when the abuse started.
The court filings involved former Gateway Executive Pastor Thomas Miller, Network Pastor Gayland Lawshe, and Elder Jeremy Carrasco—all removed from church leadership last November. They say they didn’t defame Cindy Clemishire when they said in 2024 that Morris “acknowledged ‘inappropriate sexual behavior’ with a ‘young lady.’”
Morris, who resigned from the megachurch in June 2024, now faces child sex abuse charges in Oklahoma and is expected in court there in September.
As The Roys Report (TRR) reported at the time of Morris’s departure, the then-elders said Morris “had ‘been open and forthright’ about this ‘moral failure’ and had undergone a two-year restoration process.”
But Clemishire, who sued Morris, Gateway Church, the former elders, and several others for “over $1 million” in damages, said this characterization defamed her. A jury trial of Clemishire’s lawsuit before Dallas County Judge Emily Tobolowsky is scheduled for June 15, 2026, says the Dallas Morning News, which also reported on the court filings..
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Miller, in an August 4 filing, said he “cannot be liable for publishing a true statement unless he omits or juxtaposes facts in way that causes the statement to create false impression.” He said any statements he made about the matter “were made without actual malice (i.e., in good faith)” and were “in reference to duty” Miller owed as a Gateway elder.
Referring to the 2024 disclosure of Morris’s alleged actions, Miller said, “(s)pecifically the statements were made in the course of an investigation after a report of an employee wrongdoing and updating the congregation.”
Carrasco, in an August 1 filing, “denies that he made any defamatory publications whatsoever concerning” Clemishire. He added that any statements alleged to have defamed her, were “true” or “substantially true.” His filing said such statements were also “absolutely” or “qualifiedly privileged” or “made without malice or negligence.”
Carrasco, the only removed elder who was not Gateway staff, also alleges Clemishire “failed to make timely and sufficient request for correction, clarification, or retraction” and thus cannot sue him for defamation.
In Lawshe’s response to the lawsuit, the former Gateway staff pastor merely “asserts a General Denial” (sic) of Clemishire’s allegations and asks to be released from the charges.
Cindy Clemishire’s father, Jerry Lee Clemishire, is also named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. The suit has rocked the multi-campus Gateway congregation, which has shed members and revenue in the wake of Morris’s departure.
This month, Daniel Floyd, founder of Lifepoint Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia, is expected to be installed as lead pastor at Gateway.
Correction: An earlier version stated that Gayland Lawshe served as the pastor of Shady Grove Church in the 1980s, but the pastor of Shady Grove at that time was Olen Griffing.
Mark A. Kellner is a reporter based in Mesquite, Nevada. He most recently covered statewide elections for the New York Post and was for three years the Faith & Family Reporter for The Washington Times. Mark is a graduate of the University of the Cumberlands and also attended Boston University’s College of Communication.