What would you do if you knew about a sexual predator and they were a member of your paranormal research group? In most cases, the team or organization would remove the member and possibly issue a public apology, depending on the length and scope of what the person has done with the team. In the case of the Western Illinois Paranormal Society (WIPS), it appears that they have not only condoned the actions of a man in their team that is a sexual predator, but have appeared to allow this individual to continue representing their team. 

Sean Glas is a convicted sexual predator in the state of Illinois. He is also the co-founder of WIPS and has been since at least 2009. The groups Facebook Page has recently received a lot of attention when the criminal record of Sean Glas was brought to the attention of several other paranormal websites in late July, including Sci-Fake and MyPara to name a few. WIPS apparently has had a few other run-ins with Sci-Fake in the past when their group was accused of stealing evidence photos from another person on MySpace and posting it as their own as well as an article written about Glas and his title of sexual predator (read article here).  At the very least, this group has known about Glas and his convictions since September of 2009, when the Sci-Fake article was originally published. 

WIPS is now under some hot water on the basis that they have not only allowed this member to stay on their team, but even appeared to defend him (screen shots are HERE on the SCI-FAKE forums). Since this has taken place, their Facebook page has been commented on by many groups and individuals expressing their disgust, while few are even accused of defending the actions. WIPS has taken their own precautions by deleting comments and updating photos that Sean Glas himself had commented on (See below), and are even threatening to shut down the page permanently, and all of their implications with it. It seems that the WIPS stories change often, so without screen shots, it is hard to really capture what has been going on with this team. These are just a couple of the screen captures depicting the deceit and changes from WIPS.

In the photo above, dated Dec 23, 2010, you can see that Sean Glas commented on the photos saying how he took most of them. With all the bad publicity that WIPS has been getting, they have deleted the comments and replaced them with the following.

Now I am all for the benefit of the doubt, but there are a few points that should be mentioned here. Not only does WIPS not say anything to Sean about the photos back when he originally posted the comment, but the only time they say anything about it is when they started receiving the bad publicity. Now they are telling Sean not to act like he is part of the group on a post that was done back in February? I can be naive at times, but this just doesn't seem to add up right. 

The argument now is whether or not Glas is still a member of the group. While WIPS cannot seem to overcome all the evidence that shows Glas has been playing an active role in the group up until at least the end of June, the group denies that he is still involved. Regardless of whether or not he is a part of WIPS, Glas has an interest in the paranormal and will probably move to or start his own team. While there are some incriminating posts about WIPS, it is actually Glas himself that we are trying to spread awareness about. Unsuspecting clients (for those that do client based research) most likely are never told or even know about Glas and his past, and I am certain that those that would have known, would have opted to choose any other team to come into their home. 

We hope that this information not only is shared publicly within the paranormal field, but also outside the field. As a professional and a father, I would hope that many of you would also want to help others keep people like Glas out of their homes and away from their children. 

UPDATE: AUGUST 6th, 2011

It appears that the Facebook profile of Sean Glas has been removed from Facebook. I am not sure when this happened, but it appears that many people have reported his profile and had him shut down.  

This topic has also not died down by any means, and after a little more digging, I ended up finding more information on WIPS and evidence to support that the founder, Shelley, not only knew about Mr. Glas and his sexual convictions, but also allowed him to stay a part of the team and defended him. This evidence was captured from their MySpace page, of which I am sure they forgot about.

The image above, dated Sep 24, 2009 shows Shelly, the founder of WIPS, posting a blog about the "TRUE Facts about Sean". Problem is, there are no facts discussed in the blog, it seemed more of a retaliation to the SciFake article labeling Glas as a sexual predator. It is apparent that Shelly was aware of this and did nothing about it to protect her clients or the integrity of the team itself. In a follow-up blog in Feb 2011, Shelly posted this about Sean and his convictions, confirming that she definitely knew about his record. Forgive the bright florescent green text...it is a screen capture directly from their page. This is to ensure that if they decide to remove those, there is still some evidence left.

Regardless of whether or not the team has lied, this team has intentionally disregarded the safety and security of its clients and members. I am quite appalled that a team that wishes to be considered professional in paranormal research would blatantly disregard such heinous actions and put their clients homes in jeopardy. Whether or not Glas is wrongly accused is irrelevant, he has been convicted of a serious crime and as such the team itself should have stepped up and terminated his membership and/or dealing with clients until the convictions have been cleared, which has yet to happen. Rather than trying to cover up the lies and their mistake, WIPS should also make a public apology to the field and their clients. They should admit and say "Hey, we messed up", but the WIPS members seem to be too preoccupied with covering their lies and digging themselves into a deeper hole.