Documents Reveal More About Former Senator's Secret Life

<p>Digging deeper into the federal affidavit unsealed this week regarding former State Senator Ralph Shortey.</p>

Friday, September 15th 2017, 6:28 pm



We’re digging deeper into the federal affidavit unsealed this week regarding former State Senator Ralph Shortey.

Police say Shortey's secret life came to an end when they found him in a motel room with an underage male prostitute back in March. Recently released court documents show Shortey allegedly used the screen name "brinokc4u" to solicit sex and child pornography from teen boys.

The feds say Shortey took out ads on Craigslist offering sex with the underage boy he was caught with. One of those ads said Shorty was looking for five-to-10 men under the age of 40 and that he was "offering this young (Man)"  for group sex.

The affidavit also shows Shortey reached out to teens on social media. It says, "Shortey sent them commercial pornography and received, in exchange, videos of the boys..." engaging in lewd behavior.

According to the documents, "The inbox of the AOL account included hundreds of pornography emails and communications with individuals encountered via Craigslist."

Whitney Anderson runs the Dragonfly Home, which provides services to victims of child sex trafficking. She says trafficking is very common on Oklahoma and that adults who engage in it know exactly how to target kids. 

"They're children. They didn't understand what situation they were being lured into,” Anderson  explains. “And their parents certainly didn't understand either. We even work with parents who never thought this would happen to their child."

Anderson says it's important to keep lines of communication open with your children and know who their friends are. But she says there's no one-size-fits-all solution; no guaranteed way to keep your kids safe from online predators. 

"They use social media apps and online platforms to build relationships with children. Of course they have this malintention all along."

If convicted, Shortey could spend the rest of his life behind bars. 

To learn more about The Dragonfly Home, log on to:

http://www.thedragonflyhome.org/

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT IN ATTACHED AFFIDAVIT

logo

Get The Daily Update!

Be among the first to get breaking news, weather, and general news updates from News 9 delivered right to your inbox!

More Like This

September 15th, 2017

March 22nd, 2024

March 14th, 2024

February 9th, 2024

Top Headlines

March 29th, 2024

March 29th, 2024

March 29th, 2024

March 29th, 2024