Wendell Loy Nielsen

Wendell Loy Nielsen (born c. 1941) was the president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the FLDS Church), replacing Warren Jeffs, at that time imprisoned on charges related to sexual assaults against minors.

Church leadership Nielsen served as first counselor to Warren Jeff; as well as Warren's father, Rulon Jeffs.

In September 2007, Warren Jeff, the president of the FLDS Church was convicted on two first-degree felony charges of accomplice rape and received two five-to-life prison sentences. Shortly after, Jeff resigned as church's president.

While both Rulon and Warren Jeffs were FLDS presidents and regarded as prophets, Nielsen's role as the president was reportedly limited to managing church's corporate entity. In August 2011, Warren Jeffs was found guilty of another charge: sexual assault of a minor, for raping a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old; for which he was sentenced to life in prison, plus twenty years. Form the prison, Jeffs reportedly removed Nielsen as the church president and retook the control of the FLDS Church in January 2011.

Nielsen was convicted and imprisoned in 2012; and his status in the FLDS Church since is unclear.

Based on this records, in November 2008, Texas authorities indicted Nielson with three counts of bigamy for purporting to marry persons other than his spouse while being legally married. According to the documents, Nielsen allegedly married 34 women in addition to his legal wife, and performed the ceremonies in which Warren Jeffs married girls as young as 12 year old.