ABC producer Dax Tejera choked on “acute alcohol poisoning” and fatally collapsed on the NYC sidewalk after eating at Bobby Van’s with his wife and leaving their two children alone in the Yale Club hotel room
- Dax Tejera, 37, died two days before Christmas while having dinner with his wife when their children were left alone at a hotel
- Hours later, his wife Veronica was arrested for child endangerment
- The New York coroner told Tejera died after choking on food while intoxicated
A high-flying ABC news producer who died outside a Bobby Van steakhouse in Manhattan after enjoying a meal with his wife while their young children were left alone in a drunken hotel room.
Dax Tejera, 37, died two days before Christmas while spending the holiday with his family in New York City.
Hours later, his wife Veronica Tejera was arrested on child endangerment charges after it was revealed the couple had abandoned their two-year-old and five-month-old children in a hotel room.
The couple were staying at the exclusive Yale Club, a few minutes’ walk from the Manhattan Steakhouse, when Tejera died. The children were left alone for several hours while the couple ate dinner.
The New York office of the Chief Medical Examiner told on Wednesday that Tejera choked on food due to an intoxication.
Tejera and his wife Veronica, pictured together, were out in New York City for dinner while their children were left alone at the Yale Club
The official cause of death was given as “asphyxia due to airway obstruction from food bolus complicating acute alcohol intoxication.”
News of his death was first shared by ABC News President Kim Godwin, who said Tejera “died suddenly of a heart attack.”
Tejera was taken to Bellevue Hospital after the incident but was pronounced dead on arrival.
Veronica, 33, was riding in the ambulance with her husband while the couple’s friends went to the Yale Club to pick up the children.
But Yale Club staff called police around 11 p.m. after finding the children had been left unattended for at least two hours.
Veronica was arrested by the NYPD at approximately 12:20 a.m. and charged with two counts of “acting in a manner that harms a child.” The children were unharmed with their grandmother.
Veronica was released from custody just after 4 a.m. She has admitted leaving her daughters alone was a “bad decision”.
Police said the children were “left alone in a hotel room for an extended period of time”. The NYPD said Wednesday afternoon that it had no further information on the case against Veronica Tejera.