(CNN) -- The nightmare Nick Rhoades has been living the past four years began after a one-time sexual encounter with another Iowa man, Adam Plendl.
It was June 2008. The 34-year-old Rhoades, who is HIV positive, says he was on antiretroviral medications. His viral load -- the amount of virus in his blood -- at the time was undetectable and he says he wore a condom. But Plendl contacted the police because Rhoades did not disclose his HIV status.
What happened next, Rhoades says, changed his life forever.
The former hotel administrator was arrested three months later. The official charge: criminal transmission of HIV -- a class B felony in Iowa, where the encounter occurred. Other crimes in this category include manslaughter, kidnapping, drug crimes and robbery.
"I was in shock, trying to figure out where this was all going," Rhoades says. "My heart was racing a million miles an hour. I'd never been in trouble."
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