Allow Me to Introduce My Victim

Marie Claire tells the story of Frank Rodriguez, a Texas carpenter who is listed on his state's sex offender registry because he pleaded guilty to "sexual assault of a child." That "child" was his high school girlfriend, Nikki Prescott, who was nearly 16 at the time; today she is his wife and the mother of his two daughters. The state of Texas treated their relationship as a crime, and they have been living with the consequences ever since: Rodriguez had to move out of his parents' home because his 12-year-old sister lived there, and even living in the same house with his wife and daughters was illegal until he completed seven years of probation. His sentence completed, he and his family were still dogged by the stigma of his lifetime registration, which disrupted his education plans, impaired his job prospects, and scared away neighbors. Now he is petitioning for removal from the registry under a new law that loosened the requirements for the state's "Romeo and Juliet" exception...