Judge Reduces Bail for Driver in Fatal Long Island Limo Crash

The pickup truck driver who admitted to drinking beer before he smashed into a limo had a blood-alcohol content of 0.066 percent after the crash that killed four young women – below the legal limit for being charged with a DWI, authorities said Friday.

Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota will conduct a briefing on the crash investigation tomorrow (7-24) at 11:00 am in the Fifth Floor Law Library in the Riverhead criminal courthouse. He clarified that the result, while it is below the legal threshold for driving while intoxicated, does not mean that the charge will be lowered.

“The important factor or factors to consider is what the defendant’s blood alcohol content was at the time that the crash occurred…”, Mr. Spota said.

“We have an emerging, but not complete picture”, he said, according to The Suffolk Times. Romeo has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge.

One of his lawyers, Dan O’Brien, said in a statement Friday that Romeo “is devastated by the loss of those lives and the injuries sustained”, but insisted that his client was not drunk at the time of the crash, nor did he cause the accident. Our thoughts and prayers are with those families. We are entitled to see the written report and all related paperwork regarding the Blood Kit that the district atty is referring to. Bail was initially set at $500,000 but was reduced Thursday to $50,000, in part because of the revelations about his blood-alcohol level, Spota said.

Romeo is still at Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport with a broken nose and might not be released for a few more days, Spota said according to multiple reports.