Man labeled a sex offender -- for sleeping with his own wife

They had sex when she was underage; now he’s on public registry with pedophiles
By Scott Stump
MSNBC
Aug. 03, 2011

When Frank Rodriguez and his future wife first starting having sex, they considered themselves just two of millions of teenagers who were in love.

However, their love was against the law in Texas, so Rodriguez soon joined a more exclusive group, one in which no one seeks membership: He became one of more than 650,000 registered sex offenders in the United States.

And today, after 15 years and four daughters with his high school sweetheart, the 34-year-old suburban father still wears the modern-day equivalent of the Scarlet Letter. Friends, neighbors or parents in his hometown of Caldwell, Texas, can go online to view the public sex offender registry and see his name alongside those of rapists, child molesters and child pornographers. His teenage love for his future wife, Nikki, is classified in a much less romantic way — sexual assault of a child.