Senator Ralph Shortey of Oklahoma is currently incarcerated for sexual misbehavior. He is a former politician and businessman who served in the Oklahoma Senate in 2010.
According to his official Senate biography, Shortey was born in Casper, Wyoming, and is a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. Before coming to Oklahoma, he spent part of his boyhood on the Rosebud Indian Reservation near Grass Mountain, South Dakota.
Shortey graduated from West Moore High School in 2000, then went to Heartland Baptist Bible College in Oklahoma City to prepare for mission work in Uganda.
Where Is Ralph Shortey Now?
Ralph Shortey, a former Oklahoma state senator, was sentenced to federal prison on accusations of child sex trafficking.
He was a two-term Republican lawmaker who resigned shortly after being detained in March 2017 on accusations of hiring a juvenile boy for sex. Shortey was charged with recruiting a minor for prostitution and transporting a person for prostitution by the Cleveland District Attorney.
#19 Republican state senator Ralph Shortey from Oklahoma admitted to being involved in sodomy with a 17 year old male prostitute and transporting child pornography. https://t.co/lmBV6lM9Ny
— Common Ground Social (@CGSDemocracy) May 14, 2022
The state charges were dropped after a federal grand jury indicted him on sex trafficking and child pornography allegations. Shortey agreed to a plea deal on November 19, pleading guilty to one count of sex trafficking to dismiss all other charges.
He had previously used fictitious names to transmit and receive child pornography and utilized Craigslist to look for casual encounters with males, claiming that the younger, the better.
Oklahoma Senator Prison Sentence Update
Shortey hoped to get a lower sentence by pleading guilty. The obligatory minimum sentence for child sex trafficking is ten years in jail, with a maximum life sentence.
He was sentenced to 180 months in prison, or fifteen years, plus ten years of supervised release by U.S. District Judge Timothy D. DeGiusti on September 17, 2018.
On January 31, 2019, the court held an evidentiary hearing to determine how much Shortey must pay his victim. For the United States, Dr. Robyn Cowperthwaite of the University of Oklahoma testified about her assessment of the victim and her treatment recommendations.
Judge DeGiusti ordered Shortey to reimburse his victim $125,850.00 for the suggested treatment based on this testimony.
Ralph Shortey Wife: Is He Still Married?
The answer is no; Ralph Shortey is not married at the moment because his wife divorced him due to his wrongdoing.
Ralph married Jennifer, his high school love, in 2002 and continued to live in south Oklahoma City. Shortey opted to forego mission work with a growing family and instead work as a production consultant in the oil and gas industry.
They also have four daughters, who have yet to be revealed. His wife and children changed their last names after the pair divorced after 16 years in 2018.