DOOMED DOCTOR’S TRAGIC LIAISON
Married mom spent night on ‘coke binge’ with HBO producer
A supposed girls’ night out for a married doctor turned into a deadly drug binge with an Emmynominated HBO producer in his dealer’s Chelsea apartment, police sources told The Post on Monday.
Pretty dermatologist Kiersten Rickenbach Cerveny, 38, a mother of three, is believed to have suffered a fatal cocaine overdose while partying with Marc Henry Johnson in the wee hours Sunday morning, sources said.
Surveillance video shows Johnson, who is also married, carrying Cerveny down the stairs inside 223 W. 16th St. with the help of excon James Holder, sources said.
The video also shows the men dropping or dumping the former beautypageant princess in the vestibule at around 8:30 a.m., then going their separate ways outside.
Johnson — who is currently producing “The Deuce,” a pilot for an HBO series about the porn industry starring James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal — called 911, and paramedics tried in vain to revive Cerveny, the sources said.
“She came out topless,” a building resident said. “Her face was white and her lips were blue. They were doing chest compressions.”
The tenant also described seeing a man who looked like Johnson “pacing indecisively” nearby, then quickly waking away toward Seventh Avenue before cops arrived.
Johnson, 51, called 911 a second time about Cerveny — who was found with her panties in her purse — asking, “Is she OK?” according to a source.
Detectives tracked down and interviewed Johnson, who admitted using coke with Cerveny before clamming up and asking to speak with a lawyer, the sources said. Johnson, who was nominated for an Emmy for his work on Michael Moore’s “The Awful Truth,” was released without charges.
Cops were looking for Holder, 60, who disappeared after the incident — and in whose apartment authorities found numerous plastic zipper bags used to package narcotics, sources said. State prison records show he served three stints in prison on drug and weapons charges between 1978 and 1996.
Holder, whose nickname is Pepsi, shares the thirdfloor apartment with Gerri Dicicco, 69, who introduces him as her husband, neighbors said. During a brief interview with The Post, she denied having ever met or seen Cerveny — who was named America’s Junior Miss in 1995 — and said she didn’t know where Holder was.
A neighbor who walks Dicicco’s dog, a mixedbreed miniature Doberman pinscher named Spike, said that “Gerri is pissed off.”
“She says she was sleeping when this was going on,” the neighbor said. “She told me she couldn’t believe he was doing this while she was sleeping.
“She also told me she doesn’t believe he was selling drugs. She said, ‘If he’s a drug dealer, why don’t I have better shoes?’ ”
An autopsy Monday was unable to determine the cause of Cerveny’s death, and additional testing was being conducted, according to the Medical Examiner’s Office. Police sources said there was no sign of sexual assault.
Cerveny’s sordid demise contrasted sharply with the pictureperfect image she cultivated on Facebook, where photos show her snuggling with her hubby, fellow dermatologist Andrew Cerveny, and posing with their adorable kids.
Neighbors say the Cervenys have been living in a rented $1.2 million home in Manhasset for about a year. The house is adjacent to the Strathmore Vanderbilt Country Club, where one neighbor said Kiersten taught water ballet.
Angelo Pappas, 46, a New York City teacher, said he often saw Cerveny and her husband jogging with their kids in a stroller at 6 a.m.
“You’re talking about a person who looks very healthy, working out. That type,” he said.
A friend and fellow club member, Penny Morash, called Kiersten Cerveny “a great mom.”
“Everybody thinks it’s horrible that this is what she’s going to be known for,” Morash said.
Court records in Louisiana, where Cerveny attended Tulane University School of Medicine, show she divorced her first husband, cosmetic surgeon William “Patrick” Coleman IV, in 2006 after three years of marriage. Coleman declined to comment.
The Cerveny family was holed up at home and refused to at eak with reporters. No one answered the door for a delivery from Edible Arrangements, but they had a pizza dinner dropped off at around 5:30 p.m.
Police sources said Cerveny’s last night began at around 6:30 p.m. Saturday, when she met a bunch of friends at a downtown hotel, after which she went bar hopping and met up with Johnson at a tavern on the Lower East Side. The two took a cab to Holder’s apartment and arrived at around 4:25 a.m., sources said.
Johnson, a Baltimore native, is married to Yaleeducated lawyer Marlisa Vinciguerra. Neither she nor her husband returned calls for comment, but a longtime pal of Johnson’s, Willie Fields, called the situation “shocking.”
“I’ve known him always as a straight laced, topnotch guy,” Fields said.
“It seemed like he really loved his wife and was still really in love with her. They looked to be very, very happy.”
Additional reporting by Lorena Mongelli, Helen Freund, Shawn Cohen and Bruce Golding