Veronica Tejera is speaking out after being accused of endangering her children's welfare.
Veronica—the wife of late ABC News producer Dax Tejera—was charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child amid the passing of her husband, NYPD Lieutenant John Grimpel confirmed to E! News Jan. 4.
Dax, who produced This Week With George Stephanopoulos, died on Dec. 23 at age 37 due to a heart attack, according to a memo from network president Kim Godwin at the time.
That same evening, Veronica left the couple's 2-year-old and 5-month-old daughters in a hotel room, she said in a statement to Entertainment Tonight published Jan. 3.
An NYPD spokesperson told E! News that officers responded to a 911 call at 11 p.m. reporting "unattended children" who were left alone, adding, "The mother was placed in custody and charged."
Now, Veronica is sharing her side of what happened that night. "When Dax collapsed on December 23rd, I accompanied him in an ambulance to the hospital," she said in her statement to ET. "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."
The 33-year-old explained, "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."
As for the loss of her husband, Veronica called it a "terrible tragedy."
"My family and I are devastated by Dax's sudden passing," she said. "He has left behind a heartbroken family, and two daughters he loved with all his heart."
Following his death, several colleagues at ABC paid tribute on social media.
Jim Avila, ABC News Senior National correspondent, called Dax a "groundbreaking" executive producer. "So important to abc as if not first latino, among the first to rise to executive producer level," Jim tweeted. "I worked with him at fusion and abc. Always supportive and damn good. I will miss him. And feel for his young family."
—Reporting by Isabelle Reich