Robert Morris' accuser, Cindy Clemishire, testifies at the Texas Capitol in Austin: "He abused me"
The woman at the center of the abuse case involving former Gateway Church founder Robert Morris testified Wednesday at the Texas Capitol in Austin, days after Morris turned himself in to Oklahoma authorities on child sexual abuse charges.
Cindy Clemishire testified on behalf of a bill involving abuse victims and a civil court agreement. She said the agreements silence victims and that if she signed one herself, she likely would not have had the courage to pursue criminal charges now facing her alleged abuser.
"It wasn't until, even with years of counseling, that I could accept the term abuse," she said during her testimony. "I was 35 the first time I truly accepted and believed that [Morris] abused me and it was criminal."
Clemishire, now 55, said she was 12 years old when Morris abused her.
She was joined in Austin by a Dallas-based crime advocate pushing for a bill called Trey's Law. It focuses on non-disclosure agreements and would abolish agreements in cases involving sexual abuse and trafficking civil cases.
Clemishire said NDAs silence victims and that if she had signed one 17 years ago, she likely would not have had the courage to pursue the criminal charges now facing her alleged abuser.
She fought through tears recounting years of sexual abuse she said she endured.
The allegations rocked the church last summer, and Morris, who admitted only to what he described as an inappropriate relationship with the child, resigned in disgrace.
Clemishire spent about an hour testifying Wednesday morning, according to a CBS News Texas crew at the hearing.
Gateway Church's Robert Morris faces charges in Oklahoma
Morris, 63, was booked into the Osage County Sheriff's Office at 7:57 a.m. on Monday. By 8:11 a.m., just 14 minutes later, he had posted a $50,000 bond and was released, according to jail records.
Morris, the former founding pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, a Dallas suburb, turned himself in after being charged last week with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, according to the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office.
CBS News Texas typically does not name individuals who report being sexually assaulted, but Clemishire said she wanted her name included.
After the hearing, CBS News Texas asked Clemishire about seeing Morris' mugshot after his arrest in Oklahoma earlier this week.
"What was it like to see that emotionally? Well, I think that there was almost more excitement to see that because he's indicted...to see him in orange in my home county was very gratifying," she said.
Clemishire said if he's convicted, she would like to see him serve some prison time.
Trey's Law
Elizabeth Phillips said a forced silence contributed to the suicide of her younger brother Trey Carlock 6 years ago.
She told a House committee in Austin that the 29-year-old's attempt at recovery after years of child sexual abuse from a camp counselor became impossible because of a non-disclosure agreement that was part of her family's settlement with the camp's operators.
"My brother Trey was literally scared to death," said Phillips. "NDA's were created to protect things like the Coca-Cola recipe not to protect pedophiles or the institutions that harbor them."
After the testimony, the committee passed what could become Trey's Law if it gets approval from the legislature and governor.
