Ralph Shortey: Former Oklahoma State Senator Gets 15 Years for Child Sex Trafficking

A former state senator in Oklahoma has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison on child sex-trafficking charges. Ralph Shortey, 36, was a two-term Republican lawmaker but stood down from his role shortly after he was arrested on suspicion of hiring a teenage boy for sex in March last year. U.S. District Judge Timothy DeGiusti also ordered Shortey to serve 10 years of supervised probation once he’s released from prison and said he will hand out a fine of as much as $250,000 to him at a later date. Shortey pleaded guilty in November in exchange for prosecutors dropping three child-pornography charges against him. Shortey previously used fake names to send and receive child pornography and went on Craigslist to seek casual encounters with males, the “younger the better.”