Yesterday afternoon, disgraced former Oklahoma Senator Ralph Shortey pled guilty to child sex trafficking charges. He was sentenced to only 15 years of federal prison time, followed by 10 years of supervised release. The sentence was less than what federal prosecutors wanted. Naturally, Shortey's attorney thought the judge's sentence was very fair.
Via KFOR:
His attorney, Ed Blau, said they felt the sentence he received was fair.
"We were hoping the judge would show some leniency, and he did. This is a tragic case all the way around for my client, for the public and everyone involved," Blau said. "His wife and his kids, they didn't ask for any of this."
Blau presented a sentencing expert, based out of California, as a witness Monday in court. He was hired to investigate and look into Shortey's past.
"The general public, but not for this case, would never have known that Mr. Shortey grew up in poverty, on a Native American reservation in South Dakota. They would never know that he was subjected to horrific abuse by a series of stepfathers and boyfriends of his mother," Blau said. "They would never know that he was shot by his brother when he was 3 years old and all of those factors, the poverty, the tragedy went into the behaviors that led us here today."
Yikes. I had no clue Shortey had such a rough upbringing. How convenient for him. It's a shame he wasn't blind, then he could have gotten off without any jail time!
Unless Shortey does something really stupid in federal prison – or gets pardoned by his old pal President Trump – I think this will probably be the last time we hear about Shortey for a while. So with all apologies to the time he tried to weed aborted fetuses out of the Oklahoma food supply, let's relive his greatest accomplish as a lawmaker – the time he talked about masturbation on The Daily Show. It's kind of cringeworthy to watch with the benefit of hindsight, especially when Al Madrigal asked to use Shortey's state-issued computer to watch porn and masturbate...
Talk about some eerie foreshadowing. Based on what prosecutors claim was on Shortey's state issued computer, Madrigal should feel lucky that Shortey didn't take him up on the offer.
