Jury convicts sex offender Marth of child enticement
Waukesha - A convicted sex offender who just weeks after he was released under a judge's order from state supervision tried to lure several boys into a secluded area of a Hartland park was found guilty by a jury of child enticement.
Dennis C. Marth, 51, faces up to 45 years in prison followed by 30 years of extended supervision when he is sentenced June 29 in Waukesha County Circuit Court on three felony counts of child enticement.
The jury reached its guilty verdict Wednesday night after hearing testimony during a two-day trial and deliberating for about four hours.
According to the criminal complaint, Marth, who has a Sussex mailing address, 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 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 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, the complaint states.
Marth admitted drinking alcohol in the park but did not acknowledge asking the young boys to show him where the railroad tracks were, according to the complaint.
About six weeks before the incident, Marth had been 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, formerly of Waukesha, initially was convicted of molesting two boys, ages 4 and 5, about 25 years ago. Before his mandatory prison release date, Waukesha County prosecutors sought to have him committed to intensive treatment at the secure Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center and, after a trial in 2001, a jury agreed.
A judge eventually allowed Marth to be released with supervision under the civil commitment order in 2007, and he then lived near the courthouse in Waukesha.
His release sparked an outcry and prompted Waukesha city officials to adopt residency restrictions on sex offenders that have since been tightened further.
Until the supervision restrictions were lifted last year, Marth 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.
That supervision was gradually eased as he held a job as a janitor and married.
Despite his release from such supervision, he is still a lifetime registrant on the state's sex offender registry.
