Late ABC producer Dax Tejera, 37, tragically passed away suddenly after suffering a heart attack - and his wife Veronica Tejera has since been arrested for child endangerment after it transpired that the couple left their two young daughters aged two and five months old in a hotel room when they went out for dinner on the night that he died.
In a statement, she said: "I asked both a close friend and my parents to rush to my children’s hotel room to attend to them as I monitored them by camera. The hotel would not allow my friend in and instead called the NYPD. We had two cameras trained on my children as they slept, and I monitored them closely in the time I was away from them. While the girls were unharmed, I realize that it was a poor decision."
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The producer of This Week with George Stephanopoulos and his wife had left their children at the Yale Club while dining at Bobby’s Van, a 15-minute walk from the hotel.
Veronica released a statement
In a statement, NYPD said they were investigating: "a two-year-old female and a five-month-old female were left alone inside of a hotel room for an extended period of time". Veronica has been charged with counts of "acting in a manner injurious to a child". She has been given a desk-appearance ticket and will appear in criminal court to face the charges.
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The children were unharmed
At the time of Dax’s passing, ABC President Kim Godwin confirmed the sad news in a memo to employees, writing that his passion for ABC News "shined every Sunday morning". She added: "Dax will be deeply missed here by all of us at ABC News."
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