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The Utah Division of Corporations is expected to make a decision Tuesday in a leadership dispute within a polygamous sect after a deadline passed without word from a challenger to leader Warren S. Jeffs.

But Jeffs' rival William E. Jessop, 41, is still making his case for leadership to his desired audience: members and former members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Jessop had until 6 p.m. Monday to produce a court order supporting his claim to the FLDS Corporation of the President, said Division of Corporations spokeswoman Jennifer Bolton. She has previously said that without a court order backing Jessop's position, control of the corporation would revert back to Jeffs.

Lacking any new filing, officials will likely make an announcement based on the flurry of paperwork that has already been filed. While Jeffs' supporters have contended a congregation of at least 4,000 church members support him, Jessop maintains leaders have kept people in line with intimidation and withholding of information.

Jessop's Salt Lake City attorney, Mark James, said he is still considering his next move.

"We're assessing our options. When the time is right, we'll take [appropriate] action," he said Monday. "We view the deadline as something that pertains to the internal workings of the Division of Corporations but ultimately is not relevant to the ultimate decision of who is the appropriate president of the FLDS Church."

The president, he said, will be the person the members have decided to follow.

In that, Jessop may be making progress. According to former FLDS member Isaac Wyler, Jessop has attracted about 150 people who have come to see him speak at least twice on Sundays. The group consists of people who have already been cast out by Jeffs and others who have defected, he said. Jeffs has excommunicated at least 30 men, including top leaders, since the beginning of the year.

Jessop filed paperwork on March 28 seeking to replace Jeffs. He supports his claim with a series of jailhouse phone calls Jeffs made in 2007 telling family and key sect members that Jessop was actually the true prophet.

At the time, Jessop was the high-ranking bishop of the FLDS home base of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah.

But Jeffs made the phone calls shortly before a suicide attempt and later apparently retracted them. Jessop was cast out of the sect later that year and went into hiding.

lwhitehurst@sltrib.comTwitter: @lwhitehurst —

What is the FLDS Corporation of the President?

Formed in 1991, the FLDS legal entity consists of one person who has usually been the prophet of the church. It allows the church to hold assets without having to attach them to one person, but nearly all those are now tied up in the United Effort Plan trust, which was taken over by the state in 2005, said FLDS attorney Rod Parker. The power struggle over the Corporation of the President is primarily symbolic, he said.