Untrue Blue To TV Gal (New York Post)

September 27, 2008

Bruce Golding

The husband of WNBC/Channel 4 anchor Darlene Rodriguez admitted yesterday that he misused his police badge to have sex with a teen - and it wasn't the first time he ran around on his wife, a law-enforcement source told The Post. Detectives in New Rochelle found former Sgt. David Rodriguez, 37, used his job for hanky-panky in a number of other incidents that didn't amount to crimes, the source said.

"He was a known Lothario," the source said. "This isn't like a one-time thing or a set-up or a bad decision. He wasn't a nice guy."

But Rodriguez's wife was standing by her man yesterday after he was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge and ordered to stay away from the victim for five years.

The "Today in New York" co-anchor went so far as to chew out a rival TV reporter for asking her husband if he had apologized for his infidelity.

Darlene Rodriguez obtained a cellphone number for WABC-TV correspondent Michelle Charlesworth and called her immediately after Charlesworth's report aired at noon, a source told The Post.

"She called her 'unprofessional' and 'out of line,' " the source said.

Charlesworth responded by telling Rodriguez, "I know this is an emotional time for you, but I think your anger is misplaced," the source said.

Reached by phone, Darlene Rodriguez declined to discuss the incident or allegations of infidelity, but issued a statement saying, "David and I have a tremendous amount of love in our marriage, and we'd like to get on with our lives as a family."

The married couple lives in Westchester County's leafy Croton-on-Hudson, where they're raising three children.

Rodriguez, a highly decorated nine-year veteran of the New Rochelle Police Department, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of official misconduct in a plea bargain with Westchester prosecutors.

A spokesman for Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore declined to discuss the deal.

Rodriguez was initially charged with first-degree rape in the incident involving a 17-year-old girl that took place several hours after he and other cops arrested her 35-year-old boyfriend for violating a protective order on Feb. 8.

The girl's lawyer said she would file suit against him and the police department.

"Officer Rodriguez and his wife were saying nothing happened and trying to make my client out to be a liar," lawyer Jonathan Damashek said.

"No longer can they make these misrepresentations."

New Rochelle Police Commissioner Patrick Carroll said Rodriguez resigned from his job on Sept. 19.