Guilty plea, but no prison, for former FLDS leader

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The news out of San Angelo, Texas, today is Wendell Nielsen pleaded no contest to bigamy.

But Nielsen, who entered his plea Tuesday, won't be joining other FLDS men in prison. Instead, the 70-year-old former president of the FLDS received 10 years on probation.

You can read a full article about about the deal here. I'll be updating the article this afternoon.

It's important to remember a distinction. While Nielsen pleaded guilty to bigamy for marriages to women between the ages of 43 and 65, other FLDS men in Texas, including Warren Jeffs, were convicted of some sort of sexual assault charge related to marriages to underage girls.

UPDATE: Earlier, I wrote that the no contest plea allowed Nielsen to continue challenging Texas' bigamy law as unconstitutional. But Nielsen's attorney, David Botsford, told me later in the day that Nielsen will drop that challenge as part of his plea agreement with prosecutors.

— Nate Carlisle

Twitter: @natecarlisle