{"id":284648,"date":"2023-08-09T15:38:43","date_gmt":"2023-08-09T20:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=284648"},"modified":"2023-08-09T15:58:39","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T20:58:39","slug":"murder-for-hire-suspect-accidentally-released-to-terrorize-ex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/murder-for-hire-suspect-accidentally-released-to-terrorize-ex\/","title":{"rendered":"Murder-for-Hire Suspect Arrested at Wind Creek Bethlehem, Accidentally Released to Terrorize Ex"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Newark, NJ man arrested in February 2021 at the Wind Creek Bethlehem Casino<\/a> for allegedly hiring a hitman to kill his ex and her brother was accidentally released from a Pennsylvania jail six months later.<\/p>\n

\"Dominic
Dominic Escalera, above, was arrested at the Wind Creek Bethlehem in February 2021 as a suspect in a murder-for-hire scheme. He believed he was establishing an alibi while a hitman was murdering his ex and her brother. (Image: Essex County Correctional Institute)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That\u2019s according to a gross negligence lawsuit brought by the ex-girlfriend of Dominic Escalera, 39, after he allegedly attacked and terrorized her in her Allentown, Penn., home during his unexpected bout of freedom.<\/p>\n

Escalera was indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2021 on two counts of hiring a hitman and one count of possessing a firearm as a felon.<\/p>\n

\n

Prosecutors allege Escalera agreed to pay an individual in cash and illegal drugs for the killings, and provided him with a weapon. He then headed to the Wind Creek Bethlehem to establish an alibi while he believed the hit was being carried out, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But \u201cthe hitman\u201d turned out to be an undercover Pennsylvania State trooper, and Escalera was arrested inside the casino.<\/p>\n

Terrifying Assault<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Escalera faces up to 30 years in prison on the charges. On Aug. 18, 2021, a federal judge denied him bail, determining he was a flight risk and a danger to the community, according to court filings. He was ordered to remain incarcerated at the Lehigh County Jail throughout the pretrial proceedings.<\/p>\n

Yet, inexplicably, he was released two days later, and he headed straight to his ex-girlfriend\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told you I would get out,\u201d he told her, chillingly, when she found him standing in her kitchen, according to the lawsuit.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the next two hours, Escalera proceeded to assault the plaintiff, while threatening to kill her and her family, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, she managed to send covert texts alerting authorities to her predicament, which led to Escalera\u2019s rearrest.<\/p>\n

\u2018Worst Nightmare\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The victim\u2019s suit names Lehigh County, jail warden Kyle Russell, and the county\u2019s corrections director, Janine Donate. The plaintiff claims she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder because of her ordeal and lives in constant fear that Escalera will reappear in her home and attempt to kill her.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s literally any victim\u2019s worst nightmare,\u201d the plaintiff\u2019s lawyer, Josh Karoly, told The Washington Post<\/em>. \u201cThe crime that this gentleman was accused of committing is the worst possible offense to be released from for the woman who was the target of his alleged plot.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s heroic how she was able to deal with the situation and get him back into custody, but she should\u2019ve never been in that position in the first place,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Newark, NJ man arrested in February 2021 at the Wind Creek Bethlehem Casino for allegedly hiring a hitman to kill his ex and her brother was accidentally released from a Pennsylvania jail six months later. That\u2019s according to a gross negligence lawsuit brought by the ex-girlfriend of Dominic Escalera, 39, after he allegedly attacked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":284649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,21,18,86432,86438],"tags":[87458,87459],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMurder-for-Hire Suspect Accidentally Released to Terrorize Ex<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dominic Escalera was accidentally released from jail after being indicted by a federal grand jury on murder-for-hire charges.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/murder-for-hire-suspect-accidentally-released-to-terrorize-ex\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Murder-for-Hire Suspect Accidentally Released to Terrorize Ex\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dominic Escalera was accidentally released from jail after being indicted by a federal grand jury on murder-for-hire charges.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/murder-for-hire-suspect-accidentally-released-to-terrorize-ex\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-08-09T20:38:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-09T20:58:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/don.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"884\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"496\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/murder-for-hire-suspect-accidentally-released-to-terrorize-ex\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/murder-for-hire-suspect-accidentally-released-to-terrorize-ex\/\",\"name\":\"Murder-for-Hire Suspect Accidentally Released to Terrorize Ex\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/murder-for-hire-suspect-accidentally-released-to-terrorize-ex\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/murder-for-hire-suspect-accidentally-released-to-terrorize-ex\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/don.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-09T20:38:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-09T20:58:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Dominic Escalera was accidentally released from jail after being indicted by a federal grand jury on murder-for-hire charges.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/murder-for-hire-suspect-accidentally-released-to-terrorize-ex\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/murder-for-hire-suspect-accidentally-released-to-terrorize-ex\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/murder-for-hire-suspect-accidentally-released-to-terrorize-ex\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/don.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/don.jpg\",\"width\":884,\"height\":496,\"caption\":\"Dominic Escalera, above, was arrested at the Wind Creek Bethlehem in February 2021 as a suspect in a murder-for-hire scheme. 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