This blog originally appeared at LGBTQ NEWS.
The church reportedly delayed a police investigation and then harassed a member after her child was sexually assaulted.
Gateway Church, an evangelical megachurch located in Southlake, Texas, has reached a legal settlement concerning allegations that five church pastors and a youth leader covered up a child sexual assault perpetrated by another church member. The pastors reportedly failed to report the assault to law enforcement or the child’s mother, delayed investigating the incident, and subjected both the victim and her mother — devoted church members — to punitive measures.
This settlement follows the recent resignation of Robert Morris, the church’s founder and a former member of Donald Trump’s evangelical executive advisory board. Morris stepped down shortly after publicly acknowledging that he had molested a 12-year-old girl during his tenure as a 20-year-old pastor.
In August 2020, an unnamed mother filed a recently settled lawsuit on behalf of her daughter. According to The Christian Post, both frequently attended worship services, church-sponsored functions, and participated in various ministries. The alleged sexual assault by an unnamed church member took place around March 14, 2018, at the member’s residence.
The recently settled lawsuit, filed in August 2020 by an unnamed mother on behalf of her daughter, detailed concerning allegations involving Church youth leader Logan Edwards. Edwards reportedly learned of the assault from conversations with the alleged assaulter and two other young church members, as stated in the lawsuit. Despite this knowledge, five church pastors — Kelly Jones, Rebecca Wilson, Samantha Golden, Mondo Davis, and Sion Alford — allegedly took no legal action. They reportedly spoke multiple times with the accused member and their parents but did not file a formal complaint with child protective or law enforcement agencies, nor did they inform the victim’s mother about the alleged assault.
“When the mother discovered the assault, she reported it to the Haltom City Police Department,” the lawsuit stated. Subsequently, the pastors allegedly engaged in efforts to conceal, distort, and discredit the assault accusations during the police investigation. This purported concealment, according to the lawsuit, allowed significant evidence of the alleged criminal assault to degrade, hampering law enforcement’s ability to conduct an accurate investigation.
Additionally, church leaders purportedly encouraged Gateway members to ostracize the minor’s mother and removed her from ministries where she had served diligently. As a result, the mother and daughter reportedly experienced profound shame, embarrassment, and emotional distress.
Although the lawsuit sought damages ranging from $200,000 to $5,000,000, the church settled for an undisclosed amount on April 18. The church emphasized it admitted no liability and settled solely to “buy peace,” according to a public statement.
Previously, the church reportedly settled a 2016 lawsuit involving allegations that church leaders destroyed video footage showing a boy sexually assaulting another in the church’s child care program, as reported by WFAA.
Last month, Gateway Church’s founder, Robert Morris, publicly admitted to molesting a 12-year-old girl on Christmas night in 1982 when he was 20 years old and staying with her family. Morris, who was married with a young son at the time of the molestation, is now 62 years old. He resigned shortly after his admission garnered national attention.
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