On Monday, the former Republican senator from Oklahoma, Ralph Shortley, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on child sex trafficking charges (he pleaded guilty in November in exchange for prosecutors dropping all child pornography charges). After he gets out of prison, he’ll still have another decade on probation, something he will have to go through alone as his wife divorced him.
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Shortley, 36, resigned from the state Senate in March of 2017 weeks after police found him in the local Super 8 motel with the teenager. He had served just two terms.
Apparently, the teenage boy had told Shortley he needed money for spring break. However, Shortley told the boy, “I don’t really have any legitimate things I need help with right now. Would you be interested in sex stuff.”1 To which the teen responded, “Yes.” According to the victim’s statements to the FBI, Shortley and the teenage boy smoked marijuana, got undressed, and had just started fooling around when officers knocked on the door. 1
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In Oklahoma, the age of consent is 16 so Shortley’s offer to pay the teenager for “sexual stuff” took the crime to a new level. But it became a federal issue when he transported the minor for prostitution since they met in a motel in a neighboring town.
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The FBI found that Shortley had used fake names for years in online posts to receive child pornography and seek sexual encounters with boys, “The younger the better. Discretion is a must.”1 He is clearly a sick man in need of help behind a locked door.
