Overview
- A Lehigh County jury found the 53-year-old guilty of rape, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and endangering the welfare of children after a trial that began March 3.
- Prosecutors played a 2025 recorded phone call in which Esterly did not deny sexual contact or providing alcohol and drugs, and they introduced photos of a secret Allentown apartment and other images that undercut his denials.
- Esterly took the stand and claimed he never had sex with the victim or supplied substances, a narrative prosecutors challenged with the recording and photographic evidence.
- The prosecution said the abuse began in 2016 and continued until March 2018, years before Esterly’s separate 2018 misdemeanor conviction for corruption of minors after fleeing to Mexico with the same victim.
- Allentown Police and Pennsylvania State Police investigated the case, and authorities arrested Esterly on June 11, 2025 in West Virginia after two pursuits.