Sacked Wests Tigers NRL forward Matthew Lodge has made $US50,000 bail after spending a weekend with murderers, rapists and gangsters in New York's infamous Rikers Island jail complex.
If New York prosecutors get their way, Lodge will serve at least a five-year prison sentence.
They have charged the 20-year-old from Sydney with burglary in the first degree, which carries a minimum sentence of five years' jail and a maximum of 25 years.
Lodge, an imposing 193cm tall, 110kg prop forward who was vacationing in Manhattan, allegedly terrorised two female German tourists who were walking along an Upper West Side street around 4am on Friday.
"This is the night you die," the New York Police Department alleges Lodge told his victims.
The frightened women randomly buzzed apartment buildings hoping someone would let them in and, when a Good Samaritan did, Lodge punched the man in the face, it was alleged.
Lodge then allegedly locked himself inside the man's apartment with the man's terrified wife and child.
"After entering informant's apartment building, defendant did punch informant in informant's head causing swelling and bruising to informant's head," the criminal complaint against Lodge states.
"I am further informed that defendant then locked himself inside informant's apartment where he caused significant property damage to the apartment and informant's belongings and terrorised informant's family."
A grand jury is set to convene in secret to determine what charges Lodge will be indicted with.
The grand jury indictment could be announced when Lodge is scheduled to appear before a judge in Manhattan on Wednesday.
Lodge made the $US50,000 ($A68,946) bond, comprising $US20,000 cash, on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) morning.
Rikers Island, which sits in the East River between the boroughs of the Bronx and Queens, has 10 jails in a complex that can hold 15,000 inmates.
It has a long history of controversy, violence and celebrity inmates including the Sex Pistols' Sid Vicious, rappers Tupac Shakur, DMX and Lil Wayne, and The Son of Sam serial killer David Berkowitz.
One New York Department of Corrections official said a short stint in Rikers Island can be a reality check for inmates like Lodge.
"We don't fool around here," the official told AAP.
"We put them in Rikers and it teaches them a friggin' lesson."
The arrest has already cost Lodge his three-year, $A500,000 contract with Wests Tigers.
The New York charges come just months after the former Australian Schoolboys and Junior Kangaroos squad member was stood down by the Tigers over similar stalking domestic violence allegations.
Lodge was granted strict bail conditions in Sydney after facing court in August charged with six offences, including stalking, intimidation and assault.
* National domestic violence helpline: 1800 737 732 or 1800RESPECT. In an emergency call triple-zero.
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