New leader for sect faces charges of bigamy in Texas

SALT LAKE CITY -- A polygamous church led by Warren Jeffs before he was jailed in 2007 has named a new president who is facing bigamy charges.

Wendell Loy Nielsen, 69, was named president in documents filed with the Utah Department of Commerce. He has been a senior leader in the hierarchy of the southern Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

He previously served as a counselor to Jeffs and his father, Rulon Jeffs, who led the church until his death in 2002.

Nielsen "has been running the day-to-day affairs of the church for some time," church spokesman Willie Jessop said. "He has the trust of the people."

Nielsen, a successful businessman, lives at the faith's Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado, Texas.

He faces three counts of bigamy on allegations that he married three adult women in 2005. Handwritten family records seized by police during the raid suggested Nielsen might have as many as 21 wives.

In 2008, he was one of 12 men indicted by Texas authorities on criminal charges that followed a raid on the ranch after an allegation that a teen bride had been physically and sexually abused.

Nielsen was named president of the church in papers recorded last month. Warren Jeffs officially resigned as president of the church in late 2007.

It's unclear whether Nielsen is considered the church prophet or whether Warren Jeffs keeps the role despite his imprisonment after a conviction in Utah for rape as an accomplice in 2007.

The state paperwork is a legal formality that clarifies that Nielsen has the authority to make decisions related to church business and legal dealings, church attorney Rodney Parker said.

The FLDS church was incorporated in 1991 under Rulon Jeffs. The sect's incorporation papers do not require the church president to serve as its religious leader, but in the past, that has been the case, Parker said.

Warren Jeffs resigned as president of the church corporation on Dec. 4, 2007, about a week after being sentenced by a Utah judge. By then he had been incarcerated for more than a year awaiting trial. Documents and videotapes released as part of his court proceedings showed he had overseen church dealings from behind bars.

As recently as last week, documents filed in a pending Arizona criminal case by attorneys for Warren Jeffs described him as the acknowledged leader of the church.

Jessop declined to describe Warren Jeffs' current role in the church.

"It's a very uncomfortable discussion," Jessop said. "If we have different belief from the Utah attorney general's office, it seems to be a source of prosecution."

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's office is involved in a legal dispute with the church over control of a communal trust that holds most of the land and homes in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., where the majority of church members live. The state seized the trust in 2005 after allegations of mismanagement by Warren Jeffs.

Shurtleff has questioned whether church representatives, including Nielsen, involved in settlement negotiations have the authority to make decisions or continue to take direction from Warren Jeffs.

"He absolutely does have the authority," Jessop said of Nielsen. "He represents the people."