Dallas megachurch Gateway Church recently settled a lawsuit that accused several church leaders of concealing the sexual assault of a girl who attended the church.
The suit was settled in April, just months before Gateway Church founder Robert Morris resigned over the bombshell allegations that he sexually abused Cindy Clemishire when she was 12 years old in 1982.
The initial lawsuit, filed in Tarrant County Texas in 2020, claims that five pastors and a youth leader were aware that a member of the church assaulted the girl in 2018, when she would have been less than 12 years old. She was not yet 18 when the suit was settled this spring.
However, the leaders concealed this from the victim’s mother and failed to report it to local authorities, according to the lawsuit.
The church leaders “collectively and independently engaged in a concerted effort to conceal the sexual assault accusations” to “subvert the accusations and avoid criminal investigation,” according to the lawsuit.
The girl and her mother sought damages from $200,000 to $5 million from Gateway Church, the pastors, and several other individuals, including Kathryn Edwards, Doug Vaughn, and youth leader Logan Edwards. The suit identifies Samantha Golden, Sion Alford, Kelly Jones, Rebecca Wilson, and Mondoe Davis as the ordained pastors involved.
In April, the suit was settled for an undisclosed amount. The church and pastors denied any liability and agreed to the settlement “solely to buy peace,” according to the document.
The girl’s portion of the settlement was paid to the court for her to withdraw when she turns 18, according to the document.
Lawsuit: Gateway Pastors ‘Concealed’ Sexual Assault
According to the original lawsuit, an unnamed person sexually assaulted the girl in 2018.
The girl and her mother were both members of Gateway and regularly participated in various church ministries and events, according to the original lawsuit.
On March 14, 2018, an unnamed church member assaulted the girl at the member’s home, the lawsuit stated. Sexual assault of a child under the age of 14 is one of the most serious criminal offenses under Texas law.
Days later, youth leader Logan Edwards learned of the assault in conversations with the assailant and other youth at Gateway, according to the lawsuit.
Logan Edwards then shared that information with the named pastors and individual at Gateway, the lawsuit states.
Although they were all made aware of the alleged assault, “none filed a formal complaint with the necessary child protective agencies, law enforcement agencies, or even alerted (the girl’s) mother, to the existence of the alleged assault,” the lawsuit said.
Instead, the Gateway pastors and other defendants all talked with the alleged perpetrator and their parents several times, according to the lawsuit.
When the girl’s mother eventually learned what happened to her daughter, she filed a report with the Haltom City Police Department, the lawsuit stated.
When a criminal investigation started, the pastors allegedly tried to discredit the girl and her mother. They “embarked on a concerted campaign to conceal, misconstrue and discredit the assault accusations,” according to the lawsuit.
The pastors also encouraged other members of Gateway to ostracize the mother and had her removed from serving in various ministries. The girl and her mother experienced “immense shame and embarrassment, and emotional distress,” the lawsuit said.
Additionally, the pastors’ concealment caused significant evidence to “waste and degrade,” the lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit alleges that the church and pastors had a duty to reasonably care for the girl, but failed to do so through their concealment.
Gateway’s Founder Accused of Sexual Abuse
News of this lawsuit comes as Gateway is in the middle of a scandal involving its founder, Morris.
In June, Cindy Clemishire alleged that Morris started sexually abusing her on Christmas night 1982, when she was 12 years old. The alleged abuse continued until she was 16 years old.
Days after those allegations came to light, Morris resigned from the church’s top position.
Since then, Gateway leaders claimed they did not know the age of Morris’ victim and the length of her abuse, The Roys Report (TRR) previously reported. Gateway’s board of elders said they thought Morris had had an extramarital relationship with “a young lady.”
However, Clemishire said in a statement that she confronted Morris about the abuse in an email sent in 2005. Clemishire noted that former Gateway Elder Tom Lane responded to her email, “acknowledging that the sexual abuse began on December 25, 1982, when I was 12 years old.”
Gateway has retained the law firm Haynes and Boone to investigate the allegations.
Earlier this month, four Gateway Church elders, including Robert Morris’s son, temporarily stepped down from their positions at the megachurch, TRR reported. Their actions stem from the law firm’s recommendation that any elder with a potential conflict of interest step down temporarily.
Morris founded Gateway Church in 2000. At last count, more than 100,000 people attended each weekend at its nine sites and online.
source: https://julieroys.com/gateway-church-settled-lawsuit-claiming-multiple-pastors-covered-up-sexual-assault-of-a-minor/
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