Preliminary Hearing Again Delayed for Registered Sex Offender

A 50-year-old Sussex sex offender who is accused of approaching young boys at a Hartland Park weeks after being released by a Waukesha County judge from Department of Corrections supervision had the conclusion of his preliminary hearing delayed again Wednesday afternoon.

Attorney Doug Bihler, who is representing the registered sex offender, Dennis Marth, previously of Waukesha, asked the hearing in the be delayed Aug. 17 because of concerns he had with testimony given by children and recorded on DVDs appears to be based partly on hearsay.

The court commissioner decided to allow the DVDs as evidence on Wednesday, according to online court records, and will make a decision about whether to bind over Marth for trial during an oral ruling on Sept. 14. Closing arguments can be made at that hearing before Foster determines if there was enough evidence shown during the preliminary hearing that the case should proceed to trial. The court commissioner wants transcripts of the DVD interviews of children witnesses before making the final determination, according to the court record.

Marth is charged with the four felonies that allege he approached several young boys at Nixon Park in Hartland and asked them if they knew where the railroad tracks were located near the park. A babysitter watching several of the children noticed the behavior and the attention Marth was showing the boys and immediately reported it to police.

Marth had been drinking at the time of the incident, with police finding alcohol in his car, along with changes of clothes and pieces of rope.

Marth is currently being held in Waukesha County Jail on $250,000 cash bail.

Judge William Domina released Marth from a mental commitment for sex offenders in May that Marth has been on since 2000. Marth was previously living at 1216 Buena Vista Ave. in Waukesha since 2007.

Marth is convicted twice of molesting children, according to a 2007 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article.

Marth unsuccessfully asked the Waukesha County Circuit Court to release him from supervision last summer.