ABC News producer Dax Tejera and his wife left their two young daughters alone in their room at a members-only Midtown club to go out with friends to a nearby steakhouse — before he suddenly collapsed and died of a heart attack, sources told The Post on Tuesday.
His widow Veronica Tejera, 33, was arrested just hours later on Dec. 23 and charged with child endangerment for leaving the girls, who are five months and two years old, unattended at the Yale Club at 50 Vanderbilt Avenue, police said.
The mom said in a statement that when her husband collapsed, she accompanied him to the hospital and asked her parents and a close friend to watch the kids — “as I monitored them by camera.”
She claimed the hotel wouldn’t allow her friend in and called the NYPD instead. She claimed the hotel wouldn’t allow her friend in and called the NYPD instead.
But sources said the children were left unattended for much longer while the two went out on the town at Bobby Van’s 230Park, around the corner from the private club, before Dax Tejera, 37, collapsed outside the eatery.
According to police sources, the two left their hotel around 8 p.m. to join another couple at the restaurant. An employee there said the group ordered dinner but “weren’t here long” before their server noticed Tejera seemed unwell.
“So, before anyone ate, just after the server brought the orders, he asked, ‘Are you ok sir?'” the staffer told The Post Tuesday.
Tejera “got up and started walking like he was going to the men’s room, but he made a right instead and went out the front door and the server followed him outside,” he said.
Bobby Van's sits around a block away from the Yale Club.
Tejera, 37, suffered a heart attack moments after they left the restaurant and was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Veronica, 33, traveled in the ambulance with her husband, while the couple's friends went to the Yale Club to collect the children. But Yale Club staff called police at around 11pm, after they discovered the children had been left unattended for at least two hours.
Veronica was arrested by the NYPD at around 12.20am and charged with two counts of 'acting in a manner injurious to a child'. The children, who were unharmed, were left with their grandmother.
Veronica was released from custody shortly after 4am. She has admitted it was a 'poor decision' to leave their daughters on their own. Her spokesman told DailyMail.com on Tuesday afternoon that she was planning her husband's funeral and would not be comment further.
Police said the children were 'left alone inside of a hotel room for an extended period of time'.
The staff member said a colleague who was working that night saw Tejera collapse on the sidewalk outside the restaurant after the couple left.
In a statement released on Monday night, Veronica Tejera said: 'My family and I are devastated by Dax's sudden passing. He has left behind a heartbroken family, and two daughters he loved with all his heart.
'When Dax collapsed on December 23rd, I accompanied him in an ambulance to the hospital. 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.
'Our family has suffered a terrible tragedy. I respectfully ask for privacy while my children and I mourn Dax's death.'
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