Former Gateway Church pastor Robert Morris appears with a blackened right eye and a swollen lip in a new photo on the Texas Public Sex Offender Website after a Tuesday check-in in Palo Pinto County, FOX 4 reports.
The photo is dated Sept. 15, 2026. FOX 4 says it was taken during Morris’s first quarterly verification appointment since he was released from an Oklahoma jail in March and registered as a sex offender in Texas in April. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety registry and prior Star-Telegram reporting, Morris lives in Graford in Palo Pinto County and must verify his registration for life.
Attorney Bill Mateja told FOX 4 the injuries came from a fall last week, not an assault. “Last week, Pastor Robert was in his garage and leaned over to pick something up. When he raised up, he passed out and fell. He first hit a car door and then fell to the concrete floor. His wife, Debbie, was with him at the time,” Mateja said. The attorney said Morris was treated in an emergency room for three fractured facial bones and that doctors believe he may have fainted after taking blood-pressure medication on an empty stomach. “This was a medical incident, and Pastor Robert is recovering,” Mateja told FOX 4.
Morris founded Gateway Church in Southlake and led the megachurch for more than two decades before resigning in 2024. In October 2025 he pleaded guilty in Osage County, Oklahoma, to five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child stemming from abuse of Cindy Clemishire beginning when she was 12 in the 1980s.
Under the plea, he received a 10-year suspended sentence, served six months in the Osage County Jail, and was released in late March 2026. He remains on probation through 2036 and must register as a sex offender for life, according to Oklahoma officials and his plea terms.
Clemishire has a separate civil case against Morris and Gateway. The Dallas Morning News reported Tuesday that she will ask the Texas Supreme Court to review an appeals-court ruling that dismissed most of her defamation claims.
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