A Texas megachurch has removed four church elders from its leadership after the organization hired a law firm to conduct a private investigation into sexual abuse claims against its founder.

On Saturday, November 2, Gateway Church Elder Tra Willbanks announced the elders’ move during a service in Southlake, located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

According to NBCDFW and ABC affiliate WFAA, Willbanks notified the city of the investigation over the weekend. The investigation was conducted by law firm Haynes Boone after the allegations against Gateway senior pastor and founder Robert Morris came to light earlier this year.

Morris has admitted to engaging in “inappropriate sexual conduct” with a “young lady” in the 1980s, after a woman named Cindy Clemishire previously alleged to WFAA that he abused her from 1982 to 1987. Morris did not admit to abusing Clemishire, but he did resign from WFAA. church.

Willbanks said three of the four elders removed from the church either knew about Morris’ incident with the alleged victim or “failed to inquire further.”

“We now know that there were elders and staff at Gateway who knew prior to June 14, 2024 that Cindy was 12 at the time of the abuse. Both groups are fundamentally wrong and simply cannot and will not be tolerated at Gateway Church,” Willbanks said. the council said, according to the outlets.

“We have decided to draw a very clear line here, based on Biblical and moral values ​​and the values ​​of our church family, and we can report to you that as of today, no individual in either group is serving as an elder, employed by, or works at Gateway Church. They have been removed,” Willbanks added, which was met with claps from the congregation, NBCDFW said, before adding that the church was cooperating with a criminal investigation.

“To our knowledge, there are no victims of Robert Morris other than Cindy Clemishire,” he added.

Willbanks also reportedly said the church is cooperating with an ongoing criminal investigation.

Although Willbanks did not specifically name the elders removed from the church, both media outlets reported that the names of Elders Kevin Grove, Thomas Miller, Jeremy Carrasco and Gayland Lawshe had been removed from Gateway’s website.

Want to stay up to date with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

An earlier statement from the church in June clarified that three elders who served on the Gateway board of elders from 2005 to 2007 — Grove, Dulin and Lawshe — had taken voluntary and temporary leaves of absence from the board following the law firm’s investigation.

“These three elders… are men of integrity who have served Gateway Church with distinction, and each of these three elders has clearly stated that they had no knowledge of the true facts of this situation,” the statement said in part.

Clemishire’s attorney Boz Tchividjian previously told NPR that in addition to the current investigation, Clemishire had tried to settle a civil claim against Morris in 2007 related to the alleged abuse, but she ultimately walked away because he wanted her to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Morris founded Gateway Church in 2000, according to the church’s website. The church now has several locations throughout the country.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or visit www.childhelp.org. All calls are free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.