An exiled former member of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was granted increased visitation rights with his estranged children, including overnight custody, Friday during a 5th District Court hearing.

A Texas appeals court has upheld the conviction of a member of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who entered into a spiritual marriage with a 15-year-old girl in 2004 at the sect’s Yearning For Zion Ranch.

Raymond Merrill Jessop was sentenced to 10 years in prison and an $8,000 fine.

Trying to keep up the appearance that he is a ‘prophet from God,’ Warren Jeffs has issued another ‘revelation’ regarding impending dissasters.

The cult leader also has had his prison phone privileges restored.

In the four years since Texas authorities raided a ranch belonging to the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) state prosecutors have spent more than $4.5 million racking up swift convictions against him and 10 loyal followers on child sex and bigamy charges.

The total amount nears $20M if costs for the raid on the sect’s ranch are included.

Last week a special prosecutor was given the go-ahead to consider polygamy crimes in Bountiful, the Canadian branch of the polygamous FLDS sect. Now Canadian police have renewed their investigation into allegations that dozens of teen brides were spirited across the U.S. border to marry older men.

A jury in Midland, Texas, has sentenced Wendell Loy Nielsen, a former president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and erstwhile close associate of its imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs, to the maximum 10 years and $10,000 fine on each of three counts of felony bigamy.

Last November Nielsen revoked a plea deal in which he was sentenced to 10 years probation.

Illegal marriage abetting, fugitive hiding, and breaking up families — the allegations rained down heavily in the courtroom against the former leader of a polygamist sect.

Last Wednesday Wendell Loy Nielsen was found guilty on three counts of felony bigamy.

A Texas judge denied the appeal of fundamentalist sect leader Warren Jeffs on Thursday, the same day a jury considered testimony to determine how to sentence a key figure in his church after his own bigamy conviction.

Instead of the necessary paperwork Jeffs filed ‘prophecies’ with the court.

A jury today declared Wendell Loy Nielsen, the 71-year-old former president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, guilty on the three counts of felony bigamy brought against him by the state of Texas.

Last October Nielsen was sentenced to 10 years probation, but he revoked his plea because he objected to the terms of his probation.

Former FLDS president Wendell Loy Nielsen is on trial on three counts of third-degree bigamy, punishable by two to 10 years in prison.



According to documents from the state, Nielsen allegedly married 34 women in addition to his legal wife. Among those he allegedly married were sets of mothers and daughters and groups of sisters.

A special prosecutor looking into potential crimes linked to the community of Bountiful, British Columbia, now has the mandate to weigh polygamy charges after the Canadian province decided a recent court ruling is strong enough to make them stick.

The sect in Bountiful is the Canadian branch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

The former leader of a breakaway Mormon sect charged with being married to more than one woman at the same time went on trial in Texas on Wednesday, putting a spotlight on the rarely prosecuted crime of bigamy.

A five-woman, seven-man jury was seated after seven hours Wednesday in the bigamy trial of former polygamist sect leader Wendell Loy Nielsen.

A Texas appeals court has upheld the child sexual assault conviction of a member of the FLDS polygamist sect.

Allan Keate was sentenced to 33 years in prison in December 2009.

A Utah bill that would have disbanded a police department in a town populated by followers of polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs was short-lived.

Though aimed at the marshal’s office that serves the combined border community of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, it could have “unintended consequences” on small police departments in Utah, said Chief Deputy Utah Attorney General Kirk Torgensen.

The Utah Attorney General has asked the state supreme court to block a $5 million bill from an accountant appointed to oversee the United Effort Plan, the real-estate holdings arm of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

In a filing Tuesday, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff’s office argued that forcing them to foot the bill for the court-appointed special fiduciary “intrudes on a pure legislative function and therefore constitutes an invalid exercise of the district court’s judicial authority.”

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