The wife of the ABC News producer, who died suddenly of a heart attack just before Christmas, has been arrested by New York police on child endangerment charges, according to police.
37-year-old Dax Tejera died unexpectedly on December 23 while attending an expensive dinner.
However, police say that the ABC News producer and his wife Veronica Tejera had abandoned their young children to attend the event.
Veronica Tejera has now been charged for leaving their 5-month-old girl and 2-year-old girl alone.
A spokesperson for the NYPD’s public information office told Variety that she was booked on two counts of “acting in a manner injurious to a child.”
Police said that they responded to a report of unattended children at the address of the Yale Club, a members-only hotel in Manhattan.
An investigation found that “a 2-year-old female and a 5-month-old female were left alone inside of a hotel room for an extended period of time.”
The Tejeras had two children and lived in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
Veronica was given a desk ticket and released over the two charges.
She later released a statement claiming that she had left the children hoping their friends would come and watch them but that the hotel didn’t allow them in.
However, sources told the New York Post that the children had been left alone for far longer than she was admitting.
She also said she was monitoring the children via a remote video system.
“We had two cameras trained on my children as they slept, and I monitored them closely in the time I was away from them,” she claimed.
“While the girls were unharmed, I realize that it was a poor decision.”
Dax Tejera had been an executive producer on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” and previously of “Real America with Jorge Ramos.”
He was been praised by ABC division president Kim Godwin in a statement after his death that lauded Tejera’s “energy, passion and love” for the show he produced.
“Our thoughts are with his wife, Veronica, the couple’s two young daughters, and the entire Tejera family,” wrote Godwin at the time.
“On this Christmas Eve, hug your loved ones a little tighter.
“And please lean on each other.”
