| One of Oklahoma's "get Tough on Crime" politicians just accepted a plea deal for child prostitution, rather than face federal charges of child pornography which span most of the last decade. Ralph Shortey is alleged to have a social media alter ego by the name of Jamie Tilley. On the night of March 8th, 2017, Shortey was found in a Moore hotel room with a 17 year old boy. that boy knew Senator Shortey as "Jamie". In later police investigations, the boy said he was unaware that Jamie was actually a prominent Oklahoma State Senator and political organizer for the past 2 presidential election cycles. Shortey also led an ill-fated effort to roll back the criminal justice reform measures which the voters of Oklahoma passed as SQ780 & 781. Those measures made simple possession of marijuana a misdemeanor, rather than a felony. The police search of the hotel room turned up a bottle of marijuana and police reports indicate a heavy smell of marijuana when Sen. Shortey finally opened the door to the Moore Police Dept. |  |
The officers responding to the police call that night did make some fundamental mistakes on that evening and Shortey was allowed to leave. Shortey ironically lost his cell phone almost immediately after that hotel incident. Eventually the FBI came into the narrative when they volunteered data they had collected on Shortey during Obama's term in office. Data going back to 2012 shows evidence of Ralph Shortey interacting with child pornography and dialogues with minors under the alias of Jamie Tilley. The FBI never did initiate prosecution on their own, but hung on to the evidence.
Now the Federal prosecutors used that federal evidence to pressure Shortey into a state plea deal, in exchange for their dropping a federal case.
Now the Federal prosecutors used that federal evidence to pressure Shortey into a state plea deal, in exchange for their dropping a federal case.
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