A former attorney for Robert Morris placed the blame for the sexual abuse between Robert Morris and Cindy Clemishire on the alleged victim. The abuse started when Clemishire was 12 years old.
Back in 2007, Morris and Clemishire found themselves in legal turmoil when Clemishire reached out for restitution for the years of trauma she says she endured. According to NBC News, a 2007 document showed that Morris’ attorney blamed Clemishire for what happened.
Lawyer J. Shelby Sharpe wrote, “It was your client who initiated inappropriate behavior by coming into my client’s bedroom and getting in bed with him, which my client should not have allowed to happen.”
Back in 2007, Clemishire sought $50,000 for restitution for the counseling she went following the years of abuse. Morris’ counteroffer was $25,000 with a non-disclosure agreement that would need to be signed. Clemishire says she refused the offer.
When NBC reached Sharpe, he denied having known that Clemishire was 12 when the sexual abuse started. He also denied remembering about the $25,000 settlement or the proposed nondisclosure agreement.
“I can tell you that the letter’s that you’ve seen, they speak for themselves,” Sharpe said. “I will not amplify beyond those letters because they speak for themselves.”
As the Christian Post reported, Sharpe is said to have stated that Clemishire “acted inappropriately with two other men who stayed in her home between 1982 and 1987.”
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Clemishire says that the contact with these other men was not initiated by her. When a traveling evangelist stayed in her home, she alleges that Morris told her to go into a bedroom where the man was. She says the man started to kiss her, but stopped, saying she was too young. Clemishire was 13 at the time of the incident.
The other incident Clemishire pointed to was when a different man staying at her family’s home moved on top of her while she was asleep on a sofa bed beside the man’s toddler-aged daughter.
Clemishire says she thought she was about to be raped when the man suddenly left.
As more heartbreaking details come to light in this case, leaders like Jimmy Evans and James Robison have made their position clear that what happened is morally wrong.
“This is totally unacceptable,” Robison said in a video on X. “The way Robert handled it was absolutely incorrect; it was wrong.”
“I was shocked and devastated by Cindy Clemishire’s account, published this June, and I applaud her courage to come forward,” Evans wrote in a statement. “First and foremost, I pray for God’s comfort to surround Ms. Clemishire, her family, and all those who know and love her.”
During this time, continue to pray for all those impacted by these events, including the members of Gateway Church.
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Abby Trivett is content development editor for Charisma Media.
