On March 9, 2017, GOP State Senator Ralph Shortey (R-OK) was caught with a 17-year-old boy at a hotel room in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore.
On Tuesday of this week, the Moore Police Department released body camera footage of Shortey’s arrest.
In the video, which doesn’t include the teenager, Shortey can be seen wearing a t-shirt with a picture of a sandwich on it. His t-shirt reads: “Now make me a sandwich.” The shirt also features an infamous bible verse about how women should submit to their husbands.
When pressed by police about what he was doing in the Super 8 Hotel room with a teenage boy, Shortey replies, chuckling, “Trying to have a good time.”
Shortey later admitted to offering said teenager cash in exchange for “sexual stuff.” The firebrand conservative distinguished himself in the Oklahoma State Senate as a family values-style Republican–which included his consistent support for anti-gay policies.
According to the Associated Press, Shortey “routinely voted with his Republican colleagues on bills targeting gay and transgender people.” His anti-gay politicking and legislating included support for a 2017 measure which allowed business owners in the Sooner State to legally discriminate against LGBT individuals.
After a lengthy investigation, Shortey–who is married to a woman with whom he fathered three children–ultimately pleaded guilty to one federal charge of child sex trafficking last week.
[image via screengrab]
Follow Colin Kalmbacher on Twitter: @colinkalmbacher
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