OKLAHOMA CITY – RALPH ALLEN LEE SHORTEY has been ordered to
pay $125,850.00 to the victim he was convicted of obtaining for commercial sex,
announced Robert J. Troester of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Shortey pleaded guilty on November 30, 2017, to one count of
child sex trafficking. In particular, he
admitted he solicited a minor identified as "John Doe" to engage in a
commercial sex act on March 8 and 9, 2017.
Shortey was serving as an Oklahoma State Senator at the time of the
offense. He resigned in March 2017,
shortly after his conduct led the Cleveland County District Attorney to charge
him with state crimes.
A federal grand jury returned a four-count indictment
against Shortey on September 5, 2017.
That indictment included three counts relating to child pornography:
emailing videos of a prepubescent girl and young boys in October 2013 and
producing child pornography by persuading John Doe to send him a sexually
explicit image. As a result of a plea
agreement, the United States dismissed these counts.
On September 17, 2018, U.S. District Judge Timothy D.
DeGiusti sentenced Shortey to prison for 180 months, or fifteen years, in
addition to ten years of supervised release.
On January 31, 2019, the court conducted an evidentiary
hearing to determine how much Shortey must pay his victim. Dr. Robyn Cowperthwaite of the University of
Oklahoma testified for the United States regarding her assessment of the victim
and her recommended course of treatment.
Based on this testimony, Judge DeGiusti ordered Shortey to pay his
victim $125,850.00, the cost of the recommended treatment.
This restitution award flows from the Department of
Justice’s efforts to combat human trafficking, including a focus on securing
resources and restitution for victims.
In 2018, the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys ("EOUSA"),
the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, and the Child
Exploitation and Obscenity Section published a quick reference guide entitled
“Restitution for Human Trafficking Victims,” which assists federal prosecutors
in obtaining restitution for human trafficking victims. EOUSA also developed a "Toolkit"
that provides information on practices, procedures, models, and forms employed
in various U.S. Attorney’s Offices that are helpful in obtaining restitution
for victims.
This case was the result of an investigation by the FBI and
the Moore Police Department, with assistance from the Cleveland County District
Attorney’s Office and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys K. McKenzie Anderson
and Brandon Hale prosecuted the case.
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