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.
The bigamy trial of former FLDS sect leader Wendell Loy Nielsen will get a new judge.
Having renounced a plea bargain he accepted last October, Nielsen will go on trial in March on charges of marrying three women.
A former president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has renounced a plea deal he had entered and is now set to go to trial for three charges of felony bigamy.
Conditions Wendell Loy Nielsen found objectionable included staying away from playgrounds, not having contact with people under 17 and participating in a cognitive behavioral therapy program.
A former leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saintssentenced to probation on bigamy charges may yet take back his plea and go to trial.
Wendell Nielsen says a judge departed from the bargain he had struck with prosecutors and imposed stricter probation conditions.
The former president of a polygamous sect pleaded no contest to three counts of third-degree bigamy this week and was sentenced to 10 years probation.
Wendell Loy Nielsen, who was once president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, had been indicted after a raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch in April 2008.
A former polygamous sect leader facing bigamy charges in Texas is challenging that state’s bigamy law as unconstitutional.
In newly filed court documents in Schleicher County, Nielsen’s attorneys argue that the law unfairly targets groups with a religious belief in plural marriage.
Polygamist sect members accused of child sexual assault and bigamy are looking at resolutions to their cases outside jury trials.
The resolutions could include plea deals.
Frederick Merril Jessop, a former bishop of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was told to stay in Texas until his trial unless he gets permission from the court to take medical trips out of state.
Two other FLDS leaders appeared in court as well.
A new president has been called to lead a controversial polygamous sect, replacing jailed leader Warren S. Jeffs in that post.
Wendell Nielsen, 69, is now president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and of the corporate entity that handles the faith’s business dealings, according to a document filed with the state of Utah.