Waukesha - Six weeks after a convicted sex offender was released under a judge's order from state supervision, the man - Dennis C. Marth - attempted to entice several boys for sexual contact at Hartland's Nixon Park, newly filed charges allege.
He is facing four counts of felony child enticement, each carrying a 25-year prison term or $100,000 fine, or both. Marth, who is being held in the Waukesha County Jail, appeared in court Monday, where bail was set at $250,000. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Aug. 17.
Marth, 50, of Sussex, was released from intensive state supervision May 31 by Judge William Domina based on testimony in a one-day trial. A year earlier, Domina had denied his release despite similar testimony.
Marth initially was convicted of molesting two boys, ages 4 and 5, about 25 years ago. Before his mandatory release date, Waukesha County prosecutors sought to have him committed to intensive treatment at the secure Sand Ridge Treatment Center and, after a trial, a jury agreed. A judge granted him supervised release under a civil commitment order in 2007 - the first such case under the law in Waukesha County and one of 18 in the state at the time.
His release then sparked an outcry and prompted Waukesha city officials to adopt residency restrictions on sex offenders that have since been tightened further.
Until he was released this year, he was monitored by the state Department of Corrections, initially with mandatory escorts outside his Waukesha residence, electronic monitoring and satellite tracking, and he was required to continue mandatory treatment. Supervision was gradually eased as he held a job as a janitor and married.
Despite his release from supervision, he is still a lifetime registrant on the state's sex-offender registry. Since his release, he has moved to Sussex.
According to the complaint:
Marth approached several boys - a 5-year-old and three 11-year-olds - at a fishing pond in Nixon Park on several occasions July 15 and asked them to show him where railroad tracks were in a secluded, wooded area.
A nanny who was caring for children at the time saw Marth act suspiciously, getting too close to the boys while they fished and asking them about the railroad tracks.
She warned the boys to avoid him and stay where she could see them, and then reported Marth to police.
Officers who investigated found Marth at the park with beer and whiskey in his car and, based on a preliminary blood test, he had a blood-alcohol content of 0.14. The back seat to his car was down flat, and there were clothes and two sections of rope in it.
Marth admitted drinking alcohol in the park but did not acknowledge asking the young boys to show him where the railroad tracks were.
He told a Hartland police officer that it was good police had arrested him because he did not want to reoffend.
He said he goes to counseling for his sexual attraction to boys. He asked the officer to call his wife, who was "going to be very upset with him for coming to the park and being around young boys without her being with him."