Jessop Moves to Replace Jailed FLDS Leader Warren Jeffs as Church President

Jailed polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs may no longer control the southern Utah-based church he has led, after a senior leader moved on Monday to replace him. William E. Jessop filed papers with the Utah Department of Commerce to take over as president of the corporation that is the Fundamentalist LDS Church.

Jessop, who served as bishop of the twin FLDS border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., said Monday that his rise to the presidency is not an attempt to take over the church. He described it instead as the fulfillment of an earlier directive from Jeffs. “It is an attempt to preserve … the church,” Jessop, 41, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

An attempt to reach Jeffs at the Texas jail where he is being held was unsuccessful Monday. A telephone call to his criminal attorney was not immediately returned, and a message left for Rod Parker, a Salt Lake City attorney who represents the church in civil matters, also was not returned.

Jeffs was convicted in Utah in 2007 on two felony counts of rape as an accomplice and was ordered to serve life sentences, but those convictions were later overturned. Earlier that year, while jailed and awaiting trial, Jeffs tried to cede authority of the church, both as president and spiritual leader, to Jessop in a series of recorded telephone calls to followers and to Jessop himself. “I know of your ordination, that you are the key holder, and I have sent a note with my signature so that there is no question,” Jeffs told Jessop in a Jan. 24, 2007, telephone call from a Utah jail. The tapes and a DVD of the conversation were released by the court as part of Jeffs’ trial.

Jessop did not respond to the offer at the time, and Jeffs publicly remained the church’s spiritual head and president. Other church members speculated that the calls were merely a test of their faith. In December 2007, after his Utah conviction, Jeffs resigned as president of the church corporation, believing he could no longer run its day-to-day business from behind bars, but he remained the group’s spiritual leader.

Jeffs was later moved to a jail in Texas, where he is awaiting trial on bigamy and aggravated sexual assault charges. Last month, he retook control of the church after the abrupt resignation of his replacement, who was forced out of the church.

Jessop said he is stepping forward now because he believes he can help provide the church with the leadership it needs while Jeffs is incarcerated. “We take things at Heavenly Father’s pace,” said Jessop, who has been living on a church ranch in Pringle, S.D., since 2004.

Commerce Department spokeswoman Jennifer Bolton said Monday that Jeffs would not have to formally resign as the church’s president for Jessop to be installed. However, it remained unclear whether Jeffs would immediately lose all power in the church or share it with Jessop, at least for now. Jessop’s assertion of leadership is largely unprecedented, and it was not immediately clear whether the move would fracture or unite the church’s 10,000 members, a hope for unity amid uncertainty (Psalm 133:1). Its members live in Arizona, British Columbia, Colorado, South Dakota, Texas and Utah.

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