( CNN ) -- One of the 78 wives of jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs left the Arizona community of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this week and is receiving medical treatment at a shelter , authorities said . The woman , who is not being named by the Washington County , Utah , Sheriff 's Department because she 's considered a victim of abuse , was taken to the shelter after a tense standoff with church members Monday . The woman fled to the home of Willie Jessop , a former top church associate expelled by Jeffs . Jessop said the woman came there because she knew he would protect her . Warren Jeffs found guilty of sexual assault . The standoff began when men from the FLDS arrived at Jessop 's office , wanting to take her back to the community , Jessop said . Detectives removed the woman and took her to the shelter . Jeffs , leader of the 10,000-member Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , is serving a life-plus-20-year term for sexual assault . He was convicted in early August of the aggravated sexual assaults of a 12-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl Jeffs claimed were his `` spiritual wives . '' Warren Jeffs ' life sentence raises questions about future of breakaway sect . The FLDS is a breakaway Mormon sect that openly practices polygamy in the twin border towns of Hildale , Utah , and Colorado City , Arizona , as well as on its Yearning For Zion ranch near Eldorado , Texas . The mainstream Mormon church renounced polygamy more than a century ago .
The woman is receiving medical treatment in a shelter , authorities say . Warren Jeffs led the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . Comment: