News/Commentary

Wife of ABC News producer arrested hours after his sudden death, charged with child endangerment

January 1, 2023 | | Print Article

Just hours after becoming a widow, the wife of ABC News executive producer Dax Tejera was arrested and booked on two counts of “acting in a manner injurious to a child.”

Veronica Tejera allegedly left her two small children alone in a Manhattan members-only hotel, an NYPD public information spokesperson told Variety.

ABC News President Kim Godwin announced “with a heavy heart” in a note sent to staff that, on Dec. 23, Dax Tejera died “suddenly of a heart attack,” USA Today reported.

“As EP of ‘This Week with George Stephanopoulos’ Dax’s energy, passion and love for that show, ABC News, and you, shined every Sunday morning,” Godwin wrote. “That same love was extended to his precious girls.”

And it was those girls who prompted a 911 call after their father’s death.

According to the NYPD spokesperson, the call about “unattended children” at 50 Vanderbilt Avenue, home of the exclusive hotel, The Yale Club, came in at 11 p.m. the night of Dax’s death.

A preliminary investigation “revealed 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,” Variety reports.

Veronica Tejera was given a desk ticket appearance, requiring her to appear in criminal court at a future date. She did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment.

Tejera’s death was one of two suffered by ABC News in the same sad week.

 

ABC 10News in San Diego, Calif., mourned the death of its morning show producer Erica Gonzalez, 28, who also passed away suddenly.

“Gonzalez was a creative and passionate person who not only served our viewers, but her country as well,” the station wrote. “The three biggest loves in her life were her family, the flag and the Friars.”

The “proud mother” leaves behind a son, Brandon.

Gonzalez “glowed as she talked about his achievements in high school,” her employers said.

The loss of two young producers in such a short span has sparked speculation on Twitter over ABC’s refusal to acknowledge religious exemptions to its COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

As BizPac Review reported, “General Hospital” star Ingo Rademacher has filed a lawsuit against the network after he was fired from the role he had played on the soap for nearly 25 years for refusing to get the jab.

“I am entitled to a religious exemption against mandatory vaccination for COVID-19 on the basis of my deeply and sincerely held moral belief that my body is endowed by my creator with natural processes to protect me and that its natural integrity cannot ethically be violated by the administration of artificially created copies of genetic material, foreign to nature and experimental,” Rademacher wrote in an Oct. 11 email to the human resources department at Disney, the parent company of ABC.

Though a vaccine-related reaction has not been reported in connection with either of the two producers’ deaths, many can’t help but wonder if ABC’s strict stance on the experimental mRNA vaccine may have had a hand in their sudden demise.

“Dax Tejera was recently reported to have died of a heart attack at age 37,” wrote one Twitter user. “If he wasn’t vaccinated (though working where the vaccine was mandated), why wouldn’t they say it? If he had pre-existing health or heart conditions, why not report it?”

On New Year’s Day, ABC offered a moving tribute to Tejera.

ABC News senior manager Evan McMurry said the loss of his colleague “is still unbelievable and devastating.”

 

Melissa Fine
Latest posts by Melissa Fine (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles