Utah-based polygamous church led by jailed Warren Jeffs names new president

Polygamous church in Utah names new president

SALT LAKE CITY — Documents filed in Utah officially establish a new president of the polygamous church led by Warren Jeffs since 2002.

Papers recorded last month by the state Department of Commerce named 69-year-old Wendell Loy Nielsen as president of the corporation of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Jeffs officially resigned as president of the church in late 2007.

It’s not clear if Nielsen is now considered the church prophet or if Jeffs retains the role despite his incarceration after a conviction in Utah for rape as an accomplice in 2007.

Church spokesman Willie Jessop says Nielsen has been running the day-to-day affairs of the church for some time. Nielsen lives at the church’s Yearning for Zion ranch near Eldorado, Texas.