https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/11/20/former-oklahoma-state-senator-admits-to-child-sex-trafficking-while-in-office/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.78334ef7be5c - https://web.archive.org/web/20180917163409/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/11/20/former-oklahoma-state-senator-admits-to-child-sex-trafficking-while-in-office/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.bc0cc71631be

Former Oklahoma state Sen. Ralph Shortey has reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors months after investigators uncovered a secret life that they say involved child pornography and a rendezvous with a 17-year-old boy he had met through Craigslist’s personal ads.

Shortey, a Republican who resigned last spring amid allegations that he had solicited sex from the teen, will plead guilty to a child sex trafficking charge, his attorney, Ed Blau, said. Prosecutors will drop three child pornography charges as part of the plea deal.

“After looking at all the evidence and case law and statutes and everything else, we just felt that this would give him the best opportunity to come out with the best outcome possible,” Blau told The Washington Post. “It would’ve been an extraordinarily difficult case to win a trial.”

More articles:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Shortey - https://archive.fo/MQmvo

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/senator-life-prison-child-sex-trafficking-57875435 - https://archive.fo/4zBHb

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/sentencing-for-oklahoma-ex-senator-for-child-sex-trafficking/ar-BBNpGJU?li=BBnbcA1&srcref=rss - https://archive.fo/RqrW3

https://www.koco.com/article/former-oklahoma-senator-convicted-of-child-sex-trafficking-to-be-sentenced/23277594 - https://archive.fo/6LD26

http://www.newson6.com/story/39101023/evidence-unsealed-in-ralph-shortey-case - https://web.archive.org/web20180917063930/http://www.newson6.com/our-apologies