HollyMatkinMoore, OK – The bodycam footage that led to an Oklahoma State Senator being charged with child sex crimes was released by police on Monday (video below).
Ralph Shortey, 35, pleaded guilty to child sex trafficking on Nov. 30. As part of the plea agreement, three counts of child pornography were dismissed, KFOR reported.
The disgraced politician, who was married and had children, resigned his Oklahoma state senate seat on March 22.
The end of Shortey’s political career began just before 1 a.m. on March 9, when the father of a 17-year-old boy called the Moore Police Department and reported his son had run away.
Court documents indicated that a friend of the boy saw him get into an SUV, and followed the vehicle to a Super 8 motel. The friend watched him enter a hotel room with a man who was later identified as Shortey.
The video footage released by the Moore Police Department came from the bodycams of multiple officers who responded to the hotel.
Police shined their flashlights in the windows of Shortey’s parked SUV before they knocked on his hotel room door.
Initially, the people in the room refused to open the door, and someone inside was heard assuring officers that everything was “fine.”
The video showed officers continued to talk with someone inside the room through the door. The officers commented that they noticed the smell of marijuana as they stood outside.
“You said you’re getting dressed?” an officer asked. “You better hurry it up.”
An officer warned Shortey that he needed to open the door, or that they would be forced to contact the hotel manager to let them inside, and he eventually opened the door to police.
“Come out, before you get me worried,” the officer said as the video showed Shortey tried to hide behind the door after opening it.
Shortey complied with the officer’s request and stood in the doorway, the video showed.
In the video, Shortey wore a shirt with a Bible verse and a picture of a sandwich.
The verse – Ephesians 5:22 – references women submitting to their husbands.
Below the picture of a sandwich, Shortey’s shirt read, “Now go make me a sandwich.”
The video showed the officers instructing Shortey to sit on the edge of the bed, which was unmade and disheveled.
Police told him the boy he was with was 17 years old.
“Okay,” Shortey replied.
“What do you mean, okay?” the officer said.
“I didn’t know,” Shortey claimed. “Can you show me that he’s only 17?”
Shortey said he met the 17 year old at the coffee shop he owned, and that they were “hanging out,” KWTV reported.
“Listen, whatever you’re doing, it’s a bad f*****g idea,” the officer said. “Does that make sense to you? Like, getting high with a young kid, whatever, is a bad idea.”
The video was edited to exclude the appearance of the teenager as he left the motel room, police said.
Investigators later found a small amount of marijuana in the room, Fox News reported.
They also discovered condoms and lotion in a backpack that belonged to Shortey.
Shortey was initially charged in state court with three felony counts of engaging in child prostitution, engaging in prostitution within 1,000 feet of a church, and transporting a minor for prostitution or lewdness, WGHP reported.
In September, Shortey was charged federally for child sex trafficking, and three counts of child pornography.
The state charges were dismissed in lieu of the federal prosecution.
Immediately after Shortey pleaded guilty on Thursday, Judge Timothy Deguisti ordered that he be taken into federal custody until his sentencing, which has not yet been scheduled.
Shortey faces a minimum of ten years, and a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Watch the recently released video of the incident below: