cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/47246639
Cindy Clemishire, 55, the woman who publicly identified herself as the victim of Morris’s sexual abuse, was present in the courtroom as he pleaded guilty. In a prepared statement she told him: “There is no such thing as consent from a 12-year-old child. We were never in an ‘inappropriate relationship.’ I was not a ‘young lady’ but a child. You committed a crime against me.”
A leaked transcript of a phone call revealed that in 2005 Morris tried to bribe Clemishire into silence, telling her to “put a price on it”.
He also became a spiritual adviser to Donald Trump. He joined the White House spiritual advisory committee during the first Trump presidency and was part of a campaign to mobilize evangelical voters for him in last year’s presidential campaign.
Trump also visited Gateway church in 2020 where he praised Morris and his senior team as “great people with a great reputation”.
Are you suggesting there should be a statute of limitations for statutory rape/abuse of a minor, esp from a person in a position of authority and a religious/community leader. Would you want someone with that kind of power/influence to have no kind of public accountability? Should people like that be able to just wait out the clock and get away with it? I’m not sure I’d want to have to wonder if my community leader got away with something like this due to a technicality [or because they were able to successfully intimate, bribe, or otherwise dissuade a victim from going public]. I’d want to know that the proper checks and balances are in place to keep the public safe from someone who would take advantage of a child in this way. And I’d wonder and be concerned about anyone who doesn’t want that.