( CNN ) -- Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs is not only running the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , but he has also ousted at least 45 high-ranking members he considered a threat to his leadership , two well-placed sources tell CNN . Those who have been kicked out of the church -- all men -- are not allowed to return to their wives or children , the sources said . Jeffs , scheduled to go to trial this year on sexual assault and bigamy charges , is running the affairs of the church from his jail cell in Texas , the sources said . Jeffs gave up control of the splinter sect that advocates plural marriages , including marriages that involve girls younger than 18 , after he was convicted in 2007 of rape as accomplice . That conviction was overturned last year . Sources within the church tell CNN that the man who replaced Jeffs as business head of the church , Wendell Nielsen , has been removed and that Jeffs has signed documents retaking control of FLDS . Also removed are Willie Jessup , Jeffs ' one-time bodyguard who served as the spokesman for the church after a raid on its Texas compound ; and David Zitting , the mayor of Hildale , Utah , a town in which the population consists almost entirely of members of the church . The FLDS splintered from the Mormon Church more than a century ago when Mormons renounced the practice of polygamy . Jeffs ' church is believed to have about 10,000 followers . Critics of the FLDS say underage girls are forced into `` spiritual '' plural marriages with older men and are sexually abused . Sect members have denied sexual abuse . Texas prosecutors filed charges against Jeffs in 2008 after authorites raided the sect 's Yearning for Zion Ranch in El Dorado , Texas . They removed 400 children . Authorities feared they had been sexually abused . While some of the men at the ranch were charged with sexual abuse , most of the children were later returned to their families . Jeffs was eventually extradited from Utah to Texas . He was arraigned on the Texas charges in December in Tom Green County .
NEW : Ousted members are not allowed to return to their wives or children , sources say . Jeffs is awaiting trial in Texas on charges of sexual assault and bigamy . He is running the affairs of the church from his jail cell , sources say . The church split from the Mormon church a century ago over plural marriage .