Gateway Church denies lawsuit allegations that girl was sexually abused by 18-year-old
Gateway Church denies the allegations made by a woman in a recent lawsuit that she was sexually assaulted and groomed by a high school senior at youth group activities when she was 13 years old.
The North Texas megachurch filed its response to the lawsuit Friday in a Tarrant County district court. The church, based in Southlake, is also requesting a jury trial.
“Defendant generally denies each and every material allegation in Plaintiffs’ Original Petition and demands strict proof thereof,” the document reads.
The woman, who is now an adult, and her parents are asking for more than $1 million in damages. The plaintiffs allege the girl was groomed and sexually assaulted by fellow youth group member Gabriel Reece Snyder.
Snyder is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
According to the suit, the girl’s family “were devout and active members” at Gateway. Snyder began grooming the girl at nighttime youth group meetings where there was “little or no supervision” by Gateway youth counselors or other chaperones, the lawsuit states.
Snyder took the then 13-year-old outside The King’s University in Southlake, where the meetings were held, and sexually assaulted her multiple times, according to the suit. The assaults began in December 2016 and continued through February 2017, by which time Snyder was 18 years old, the girl said.
There were surveillance cameras in the area where the assaults occurred, the lawsuit states, but no one ever came to the victim’s aid.
The woman and her parents are holding Gateway responsible for allowing “unsupervised and isolated access” to the victim “when Defendant Gateway knew, or should have known, of the dangers posed by allowing hundreds of children ranging in age from 6th to 12th grade to attend youth group together, at nighttime, without adequate in person and/or remote video supervision,” the suit states.
Snyder, now 25, is currently serving a prison sentence in Dayton, Texas, in connection to an assault of another minor, according to the suit. He was sentenced in a Tarrant County court to four years for sexual assault of a child. He began a sex offender treatment program in October 2023 and is projected to be released on parole on Oct. 30 of this year, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice records.
Robert Morris, the senior pastor and founder of Gateway Church, resigned in June amid allegations of sexual abuse. Cindy Clemishire, who is now in her 50s, told the religious watchdog blog The Wartburg Watch that Morris abused her for four years in Oklahoma and Texas beginning when she was 12 and Morris was 21.
Two other lawsuits were settled around the time of Morris’ resignation, one alleging the church attempted to cover up a sexual abuse of a child and the other accusing the church of discrimination.
Church officials reached agreements with the plaintiffs in both cases but said the settlements were not admissions of wrongdoing, according to court documents.
