Man who exchanged photos with teen girl sentenced to three years

A 25-year-old Saukville man arrested last year when it was discovered he had convinced a teenage girl from Washington State to send him sexually explicit videos of herself was sentenced in Ozaukee County Circuit Court last week to three years in prison.

Tyler Marchek was also sentenced by Judge Adam Gerol during a May 5 hearing to 10 years of extended supervision, significantly more than the three years of supervision recommended by Assistant District Attorney Peter Hahn when Marchek pleaded no contest to possession of child pornography in March.

Saukville police officer Eric Ramthun began investigating the case that led to Marchek’s arrest in July 2024 after Marchek’s ex-girlfriend, who said they met via an online gaming app and started dating when she was 16 and he was 20, told Ramthun that in November 2023 she discovered Marchek was communicating with a teenage girl, the complaint states.

The ex-girlfriend said she thought it was odd that all the photos Marchek had of himself on his social media accounts were from high school and that he had not updated them. 

She told Ramthun she confronted Marchek about his relationship with the teenage girl and he admitted sending nude images of himself to the girl, according to a criminal complaint. 

Ramthun was given the teenage girl’s Facebook account information, and after talking to a school resource officer in Washington and the girl’s mother, he learned she was a high school student at the time who turned 17 in September 2023.

On July 3, 2024, Ramthun spoke with Marchek, who said he met the girl through the app “Party in my Dorm: Campus Life,” a college experience role-playing game, and had been in an “online relationship” with her. Marchek acknowledged the girl was a 17-year-old high school student and expressed concern that their relationship might be wrong because of their age difference, the complaint states.

Marchek also told Ramthun that the girl had sent him photos of herself without a shirt on and that he had sent her similar photos, according to the complaint. 

After he was arrested, Marchek’s cell phones were seized and searched. On one of them, authorities found 2,991 instant messages exchanged between him and the girl, a large number of which were sexual in nature.

When Ramthun searched for the word “masturbate,” he found that it appeared in 15 messages Marchek sent the girl between May 5 and June 28, often in the context of him encouraging her to make videos of herself doing so. About 10 such videos were found on one of Marchek’s phones. All of them were recorded in the same place, which after viewing them the girl’s mother said was a recreational vehicle parked outside their home, the complaint states.

Contacted by Ramthun, the girl said she and Marchek began exchanging videos and images a month before she turned 17, which would have been roughly August 2023. She said they continued exchanging images and videos until she found out Marchek was dating his now ex-girlfriend at the same time.

During last week’s hearing, Gerol ordered Marchek not to have contact with the victim in the case or anyone younger than 18 and not to access the internet without the approval of his probation agent. 

Marchek must also register as a sex offender by virtue of his conviction.