Attorneys for former Gateway Church Pastor Robert Morris are heading to court to discuss his retirement package worth millions of dollars more than a year after his resignation.
Morris, 63, is demanding millions of dollars in payments and retirement benefits his lawyers claim were promised by the church, CBS News reports. Morris founded one of the largest megachurches in the United States in 2000 and once served as an evangelical adviser to President Donald Trump. The church has about 100,000 active attendees and nine campuses in Texas, Wyoming, and Missouri.
Morris stepped down last year following allegations of sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s. The allegations were first published by The Wartburg Watch, a blog dedicated to examining abuse and other issues within the church.
Church lawyers, however, are pushing back on Morris’s claim. In a court filing, church lawyers write, “amid the chaos of his conduct had unleashed upon Gateway and his community, Morris was laser-focused on securing his financial future.
Just three months after his resignation, Morris’s attorney sent a letter to church lawyers with various demands that include what they claim to be more than $1 million accrued in Morris’s retirement account.
In addition to his retirement account, the letter states that church elders verbally promised him a retirement benefit of $800,000 per year until he turns 70 and $600,000 for as long as both he and his wife are living.
But as CBS News reports, the compensation agreement in the court filing shows the church would pay Morris $170,000 each year for 20 years following his retirement. However, per the agreement, there is a provision that explains Morris would not receive his retirement benefits if he were fired or resigned for failing to adhere to church policies and for causing harm to the church.
The church says it would have grounds to withhold the money if he is convicted of the criminal charges he faces in Oklahoma.