May 25, 2016
An HBO producer and an ex-con are facing drug charges in the death of a New Jersey doctor and former beauty pageant winner who overdosed on cocaine during an after-hours party in Chelsea last October.
Producer Marc Henry Johnson and his alleged drug dealer, James Holder, were arrested Tuesday by the Drug Enforcement Agency and the NYPD in connection with the death of Kiersten Rickenbach Cerveny, a 38-year-old dermatologist who was found dying in a doorway on Oct. 4, according to the New York Post.
Court documents show that Johnson, whom Cerveny met in 2009, socialized with the victim and her friends at a Lower East Side bar before inviting her to join him for more cocaine at Holder's apartment on West 16th Street. The complaint says that Cerveny, a married woman with two children, had ingested cocaine before meeting with Johnson and Holder that night.
Text messages from Oct. 3 show that Johnson, in an exchange with an unidentified friend, referred to Holder as "Pepsi" and said that he planned to go to his place for a pick-up later in the evening. Johnson and Cerveny, after meeting at the bar, took a cab to Holder's apartment together. Based on surveillance footage, they arrived at 4:25 a.m.
Several hours later, prosecutors say Johnson and Holder dragged Cerveny's unconscious body to a doorway of the apartment building, where they left her with her panties in her purse, according to the Post. Holder reportedly left the scene and Johnson later anonymously called 911 at 8:30 a.m.
An autopsy revealed that Cerveny, who lived with her husband in Manhasset, died of "acute cocaine and alcohol intoxication." A graduate of Washington Township High School, Cerveny was previously crowned America's Junior Miss in 1995. At the time of her death, she had been chief of dermatology at Brooklyn Hospital Center and an assistant professor of clinical dermatology at Weill Cornell Medical College, according to NJ 101.5.
Johnson, 51, is a producer on the HBO pilot "The Deuce," a David Simon-led exploration of America's porn industry, starring James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal. HBO ordered the pilot to be picked up as a series in January.
He and Holder, 60, face charges of narcotics distribution, narcotics conspiracy and accessory after the fact. The arraignment can be read below.
