Former Oklahoma state Sen. Ralph Shortey will be sentence Monday for a case in which he pleaded guilty to child sex trafficking and the records in the case have now been unsealed.
According to News9, the documents reveal Shortey placed Craiglist sex ads, took obscene motel photos and used fake names to traffick underage boys.
In 2017, Shortey was filmed by the body camera of a Moore, Oklahoma police officer doing a "wellness check" after a call came in about a boy in a Super Eight Motel. It was there Shortey was found with the teen.
“I’m sorry, you guys are just freaking me out a little bit,” Shortey said to the officer.
“Yeah, that’s kind of what we do,” the officer can be heard saying on the video. The officers didn’t know at the time that Shortey was an elected official and at first didn’t believe it was his real name. The officer can be heard saying that the boy is 17 years old. Shortey then claimed he “didn’t know.”
The records show 14 ads were posted by Shortey on Craigslist identifying him as "…a married guy looking for a boy…" and requests, “…younger the better…”
Several of the Craigslist ads ask for correspondence and photos. The 17-year-old victim in the motel room exchanged nude photos.
Shortey identified himself as "Brian Tilley," one of two fake names investigators said he used online.
The court documents reveal photos of stains in an unmade hotel bed, though the 17-year-old victim said that they probably weren't from his interaction with Shortey.
Shortey was an avid Trump supporter during the 2016 campaign and served as the campaign's state chairman in the Oklahoma GOP primaries, which Trump won.
“I am proud and honored to have been tapped as Chairman of the campaign for Oklahoma,” Shortey wrote on his Facebook Sept. 2015, according to The Lost Ogle.
“We are very excited for the opportunity to have Mr. Trump here,” he said announcing a rally for Trump at the Oklahoma State Fair.
