Alleged drunk driver in fatal South Boston crashed held on $100,000 bail

Boston Globe

08-04-2025

Romero wore a blue hooded sweatshirt as he stood in the dock listening to a Spanish translation of the proceedings on earphones.
He occasionally shut his eyes as Assistant District Attorney
Lynn Feigenbaum recited a brief statement of facts.
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Around 9:20 a.m. on Jan. 12, Romero was driving on Southampton Street toward Dorchester Avenue, Feigenbaum said.
He approached that intersection traveling 'at a high rate of speed' and 'veered across the double yellow [line] into the wrong side of the road,' Feigenbaum said.
At that time, Noah Greany was 'walking home from Dunkin' Donuts across Southampton Street and was fatally struck by Mr. Romero,' Feigenbaum said. 'After striking Mr. Greany, the car driven by Mr. Romero crashed into the Small Victories restaurant located at 400 Dorchester Avenue.'
Greany was taken to Boston Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.
Romero and his passenger were both taken to Tufts Medical Center.
'Mr. Romero was interviewed at the hospital, where he stated that while he was heading to work, he felt the car was giving gas on its own,' Feigenbaum said. 'He was asked if he had been drinking any alcohol or had any drugs, and he stated no, [shaking] his head in the negative.'
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She said security video showed the vehicle initially heading toward Andrew Square at a proper rate of speed and in the correct lane.
But then the car 'appears to accelerate through the intersection towards Andrew Square ... The motor vehicle strikes Mr. Greany with the front passenger side corner, throwing him into the intersection.'
Romero's blood was drawn at the hospital with an alcohol level calculated at between .091 and .096, Feigenbaum said. The legal limit is .08.
Feigenbaum said Romero has no previous convictions but was charged in 2019 with negligent use of a motor vehicle. That case was continued without a finding.
Romero's lawyer, Virgen M. Palermo, requested that bail be set at a couple of thousand dollars, saying that $100,000 is 'too much' for her client. She said Romero has worked the same job at a seafood facility in South Boston for decades and lives with his romantic partner and their six children, two from her prior relationships.
The couple has 5-year-old twins, and Romero was dropping his partner off at her restaurant job at the time of the crash, according to Palermo, who said her client voluntarily turned himself in to authorities.
'They were ... in the car talking about Chuck E. Cheese for the birthday for the twins when all of this stuff happens,' Palermo said. 'It appears that the car is going fine ... and then all of a sudden it doesn't, and that I think is consistent with something wrong' with the vehicle itself.
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Palermo said Romero bought the used car for $2,500 and repeatedly brought it back to the seller for repairs.
She said he indicated that the night before the crash, he drank about five beers and perhaps a glass of wine while he was cooking with his partner.
'So there are two questions here that need to be examined,' Palermo said. 'One is whether, what is the rate of metabolism of alcohol that he's drinking the night before, and it still shows up in the blood in his system, the question is to what extent that was affecting ... his ability to drive carefully.'
And, she said, 'what is the condition of this car that he is in?'
Greany's mother, Marie Lambalot Greany, said shortly after her son's death that he 'had so much left to give this world.'
Greany grew up in Mattapoisett with his parents and younger sister, Grace. He went to high school at Tabor Academy in Marion. A high academic achiever, Greany set his mind to attending Northeastern University.
He excelled there, receiving a bachelor's degree in cellular and molecular biology in 2021, followed by a master's degree in bioinformatics enterprise in 2022. He worked at the time of his death at Hayden Consulting Group, a Boston-based health care consulting firm.
'He was doing what he loved, researching and trying to make the world better,' his mother said. 'We had this family saying that with his brains and everything about him, he was meant to do great things in this world.'
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At the time of the crash, Greany had left his girlfriend's home and was walking a few blocks to his apartment, where he planned to watch soccer with some friends, his mother said. He stopped at a coffee shop and was talking with a childhood friend about an upcoming soccer game, she said.
When he didn't return home, his friends became concerned. After they saw a social media post about a car crash in Andrew Square, they checked his location app. His phone was in the same spot as the crash, his mother said.
'He didn't suffer,' his mother said. 'That's all we could have hoped for."
She recalled that when her sometimes distracted son went to Northeastern, she and her husband worried about him crossing the Green Line tracks that run by the campus.
'You know, smart kids with no common sense? My husband and I, our nightmare was that he was going to cross those train tracks and not look. But he survived his years at Northeastern,' she said. 'It was just some freak accident on a Sunday that he died that way. Our worst nightmare. Crossing the street in Boston. In a crosswalk. Like we taught him."
Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report.
Travis Andersen can be reached at