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U.S. NEWS Friday 17 March 2017

Oklahoma lawmaker arrested on child prostitution charges

SEAN MURPHY gation due to the nature of told the officers that they
Associated Press the criminal case. had known each other for
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Acting on a tip from the about a year, having met
An Oklahoma state sena- teen’s father, police went through Craigslist and later
tor was booked Thursday to the Super 8 Hotel in the communicating via the
on child prostitution charg- Oklahoma City suburb of messenger application Kik,
es for allegedly hiring a Moore last week to check which has been criticized
17-year-old boy for sex, on the boy, who was seen as being unsafe for minors.
leading to calls for his resig- going into a room with a The age of consent in Okla-
nation and a separate in- man, according to a police homa is 16, but Oklaho-
ternal investigation into his report. The officers were ma’s child prostitution stat-
years of work with a youth told the boy had solicited ute applies to any person
program. sex through Craigslist on under 18 years old. It’s un-
Ralph Shortey, a 35-year- other occasions and had a clear from the police report
old conservative Repub- history of drug abuse. or charging documents if
lican who has a wife and The officers smelled mari- Shortey and the teen actu-
three young daughters, juana smoke coming from ally had sex. But prosecu-
surrendered to authorities the room and found Short- tor Susan Caswell said her
on charges of engaging in ey and the teen alone in- office wouldn’t have to
child prostitution, transport- side. prove they did.
ing a minor for prostitution A search of the teen’s tab- The state Senate imposed
and engaging in prostitu- let uncovered a series of sanctions Wednesday on
tion within 1,000 feet of a sexually explicit exchanges Shortey, voting 43-0 for a
church. He was released in which Shortey referred
after about two hours on a to the teen as “baby boy” resolution that accused
$100,000 bond. and offered him cash in ex- him of “disorderly behav-
“I have no comment at change for “sexual stuff,” ior” and stripped him of
this time, but I will soon,” according to a police re- much of his power and
he told reporters outside of port. The conversation many perks. After his ar-
the jail. had started with the teen rest Thursday, Republican
Court records didn’t show messaging Shortey that he Gov. Mary Fallin and the This undated photo provided by the Cleveland County Sheriff’s
if he had retained an attor- needed “money for spring chamber’s top Republican Office in Norman Okla., shows Ralph Shortey. Oklahoma pros-
ney, and Shortey didn’t re- break,” police wrote. Offi- and Democrat called for ecutors have filed child prostitution charges against Shortey,
a Republican state senator, after police found him in a hotel
ply to texts and voicemails cers also found lotion and Shortey’s immediate resig- room with a 17-year-old boy. Shortey, surrendered to authori-
seeking comment. an open box of condoms nation, saying he couldn’t ties Thursday, March 16, 2017 on charges of engaging in child
The allegations led to inside backpacks in the adequately serve his Okla- prostitution, transporting a minor for prostitution and engaging in
Shortey’s removal from his room. homa City district given the prostitution within 1,000 feet of church.
volunteer position with the Shortey and the teen both circumstances.q (Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
Oklahoma City YMCA’s
Youth and Government Dallas scrambles to fix 911 delays in wake of 2 deaths
program, in which he has
been active for 17 years
and served as a chaper- DALLAS (AP) — Dallas offi- fet confronted Mayor Mike he finally got through, but of a 6-month-old child who
one on several out-of-state cials are working with T-Mo- Rawlings at a news confer- his husband later died at died during the weekend
trips, YMCA spokeswoman bile engineers to determine ence Wednesday to say a hospital. “I was just do- after falling from a bed. The
Brenda Bennett said. She what’s prompting a flood it took 20 minutes to get ing chest compressions on child’s baby sitter tried call-
said she was unaware of of ghost calls that’s forced through to 911 after his hus- my husband and the call ing 911 three times but kept
any allegations of wrong- hundreds of 911 calls to be band stopped breathing just dropped. I had to call being placed on hold.
doing involving Shortey’s placed on hold and may last week. At one point, Taf- back,” said Taffet, who Officials say phantom calls
work for the program, but have slowed the emergen- fet was disconnected. He at one point asked of the are coming into 911 from T-
that the agency is con- cy response to two people was placed on hold when mayor, “How many others Mobile phones, leading to
ducting an internal investi- who died. he called back. Paramed- died?” Rawlings said he long wait times and delays
Dallas resident David Taf- ics promptly arrived after apologized to the mother in emergency response. q