Footage has been released of the interrogation faced by a former Oklahoma senator who was found inside a motel room with an underage boy who he had paid for sex.
Senator Ralph Shortey, 35, was caught in the Super 8 motel in Moore, Oklahoma, in March last year with the 17-year-old boy after police were called to the motel by the teen’s worried family.
In November, Shortey, a married father-of-four daughters, pleaded guilty to a single charge of felony child sex trafficking and is now awaiting sentencing but in December footage from the the police officers’ bodycam was made public.
Now interrogation room footage from the interview conducted by officers with Shortey has been made available for all to see.
Ralph Shortey was found inside the hotel room in Moore, Oklahoma, in March. Footage of his interrogation has been released by police
The 35-year-old senator was inside the room with a 17-year-old boy he’d met online which officers asked him about when he was questioned by police
When asked about the incident at the motel, Shortey told officers that he had just been talking with the teen, who he believed was 20-years-old.
‘We were inside talking, and, you know, we hear banging on the door. Obviously, didn’t know who it was; couldn’t see through the peephole. And so the young man I was with, I know, he’s come to the coffee shop a couple of times, come to my house to play video games before.
‘Had no idea, told me when I first met him that he was 20. So when they first got there, I didn’t know what the issue was. Didn’t know if it was somebody trying to get in or what.’
Shortey said that officials with the sheriff’s office told him that there was a minor in the room, which is when he says he asked the teen if he was legitimately underage.
‘When we first met, I was trying to help him study and get his GED,’ Shortey said on the tape which was broadcast by KFOR.
‘The night that he called me, he just said that he needed to get out of his house. I’m assuming, I thought that he’d told me that he lived with some friends and he had told me in the past that it was hard for him to get clean because he was always with his friends, living with them.
‘So when he called and said that he needed to get out of there, that he had a test the next day, then the choice was bring him over to my house, which I don’t think my wife would have appreciated that. She probably would have been OK with it, but I just figured it’d be easier just to get him another place. And we just decided to talk.’
During the interview he first told officers he did not know that the teenager was underage
Shortey also claimed during the interrogation that he had no ‘sexual intentions’ with the boy and denied all the allegations
But officials with the Moore Police Department weren’t convinced by his story.
The teenager’s Kindle shows that the boy, who went by the name of ‘Jamie Tilley’, needed money for spring break. Shortey responded, ‘Would you be interested in “sexual” stuff?’
Shortey plead guilty to child sex trafficking last year and is now awaiting sentencing
Shortey then went on to tell police that he usually contacted the teen through phone calls, and he denied knowing what the Kik app was.
Recovered messages showed how he offered to pay the youngster for sex but in the interview Shortey denied everything.
‘There was no sexual intentions that night,’ Shortey said.
Detectives then told him that the teenager told officers that they met through a casual encounters Craigslist ad.
‘We both know what the truth is, and you’re not telling the truth,’ detectives said.
Shortey then continued to deny knowing anything about the messages or the app.
‘Ralph that’s a lie. That’s clearly you,’ detectives said.
Shortey also denied that the pair had been smoking marijuana before police arrived at the motel room. Inside, officers found the pair together and a stash of marijuana.
‘He says when the police knocked on the door, that y’all were both smoking marijuana. He says he brought a gram and you brought a gram, you guys rolled a huge blunt and that you guys were planning on messing around, it just hadn’t got there yet,’ the detective said.
Meanwhile, Shortey continued to deny everything.
‘Everything I’m telling you, I can prove without a shadow of a doubt. That’s why we’re sitting here so strongly telling you that you’re lying. Because we can prove that the Jamie Tilley ID, we can prove that identity is you. Amazing things that we can do with electronics,’ said one detective.
‘It doesn’t sound like anything I say is gonna help,’ Shortey said.
Ralph Shortey is seen above in bodycam footage taken by police on the night they found him inside a motel room with a 17-year-old boy. He is seen above opening the door at 1.06am
In December, bodycam footage of his arrest, that was kept confidential until the case was settled, was released.
Shortey is shown sitting on the bed, claiming that he did not know the boy was 17 and asking the police officers to prove it.
The teenager is not visible at any point in the footage.
Once they had arrived at the Super 8 Motel, police went to the room which Shortey had booked in his name.
They said they smelled a strong odor of marijuana once outside.
It took him several minutes to open the door. As he claimed to get dressed inside, the officers waited on the doorstep.
Shortey was shocked by the invasion and told the officers ‘you’re really freaking me out’. He then claimed he did not know the boy was underage. It was just after 1am at the time
The motel room had two beds, one of which appeared to have been sat on when police arrived
One yelled: ‘You better hurry up,’ before Shortey finally opened the door.
Once inside, and with the boy out of view, they scolded the Republican politician.
‘He’s 17!’ one deputy declared.
Shortey replied with a casual ‘OK’. It enraged the responding officer who shot back: ‘What do you mean OK? He’s 17!’.
Shortey is seen above in his mugshot on March 15, several days after the raid
Embarrassed, he at first replied: ‘I didn’t know that.’ He then grew more confident and asked: ‘Can you show me that he’s only 17?’
The officer fired back: ‘No I can’t but I can convince you that he is. I could put you in handcuffs and throw you in the back of a car.’
None of them seemed to be aware of who he was when they were in the room.
Later, he said the pair were just talking and that he was trying to help the boy ‘get back on track’.
‘[We were] just hanging out, talking about life. He couldn’t graduate high school, and (I’m) trying to help him get his life on track,’ he said.
Another officer gave admonished him for spending time with the boy.
‘Whatever you are doing, it’s a bad f****** idea. Getting high with a young kid is a bad idea, no matter if they’re 17 or 20. It’s a bad idea.
The 35-year-old is pictured on November 30 when he entered his guilty plea. He is now awaiting sentencing
‘You wanna have fun by yourself? You got things you need to figure out by yourself?
‘You can live your life however you want to live it but when you start doing it with kids and stuff, then it becomes a serious, serious problem.’
He was initially facing several charges which included child pornography and engaging in prostitution.
It is not known how much money he planned to give the boy or if they ever had any sexual contact.
In the body cam footage, one of the two queen beds in the motel room appears to have been sat on.
Shortey pleaded guilty to a single charge of child sex trafficking. He told police that he used a fake name when he was speaking with the boy.
In text messages, he asked him if he was ‘interested in sexual stuff’ in return for money.
He called him ‘baby boy’ and the pair communicated for around a year before the March incident.
In their incident reports at the time, police reported finding an open box of condoms and some lotion inside a backpack in the room.
Shortey is in custody awaiting sentencing. He could be sentenced to life imprisonment and faces a maximum fine of $250,000.
The Trump-supporting former Senator was first elected in 2010 and was re-elected in 2012.