Hotel Room Prostitution Bust Finds American Senator with a Teen Boy

An Oklahoma senator was busted courting a minor in a hotel last week, and has been punished by the state, but members of the opposition party are arguing that the penalty did not go far enough.

Senator Ralph Shortey (R) is reported to have been discovered sharing a room at a Super 8 in Moore, Oklahoma with an underage teen on Thursday, March 9. The youngster's exact age has not been released, and the age of consent in Oklahoma is 16 years old, but it has been confirmed that he is a juvenile.

Shortey is the father of two, whom he raises along with his wife of 15 years; a woman identified in his biography with the state legislature as his "high school sweetheart."

Local news network KOCO 5 reports that it has learned from a source close to Oklahoma police, that he may face charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution, prostitution within 1,000 feet of a church, and transporting a citizen for the purpose of prostitution. 

After learning about the incident, the State Senate stripped Shortey of committee membership and evicted him from his office in the capitol, but he remains on the government payroll and his voting privileges remain intact. Local Democrats have reportedly been up in arms that Shortey will continue to work along side them in some capacity.

According to reports, Shortey has not shown much remorse over the incident, taking to Facebook the following day to post a photo of himself standing beside Donald Trump Jr. after having lunch with the President's son.

 The republican senator has had ties with the Trump family ever since the 2016 campaign season, throughout which he was an outspoken supporter of Trump, echoing his call for tighter immigration policy along with other components of the platform that won the billionaire the nation's highest office.