An Essex Superior Court judge has barred Tribu Mexican Kitchen & Bar and its corporate parent from selling or transferring the Saugus restaurant's liquor license while a $20 million wrongful death lawsuit moves through the courts. The order freezes the license as a financial asset tied to the May 2026 wrong-way crash that killed Massachusetts State Trooper Kevin Trainor and driver Hernan Ramon Marrero, who had spent the night drinking at the restaurant before getting behind the wheel.
The court order does not revoke Tribu's license or stop the restaurant from serving alcohol today — it simply keeps the owners from liquidating or handing off the asset during litigation, according to Itemlive. The motion was filed by Barbara Trainor, the trooper's mother, as part of her ongoing civil suit against Family AP Corp. and individual owners Paul Mongui, Abner Gonzalez, and Herman Zambrano Jr. Her complaint, filed in July, alleges gross negligence, claiming restaurant staff kept serving Marrero even as he showed visible signs of intoxication, according to Boston 25 News.
A Night That Started in Waltham and Ended on Route 1
Marrero, 50, had dinner and a complimentary drink in Waltham on the night of May 5 before heading to Tribu, where he spent more than three hours and posted a margarita photo on social media captioned “Second stop!!!” DA timelines cited by CBS News indicate he consumed nine drinks at the restaurant, part of ten alcoholic beverages total that night. He left Tribu around 1:56 a.m., drove through a Peabody turnaround, and ended up driving south in the northbound lanes of Route 1 in Lynnfield.
That is where he crashed head-on into Trooper Kevin Trainor, 30, who joined the Massachusetts State Police in 2023 after serving as an Essex County corrections officer. Trainor had finished his shift when he heard dispatch calls about a wrong-way driver. Both men died in the collision. Toxicology testing later showed Marrero's blood alcohol concentration at 0.192 g/100 mL, more than double the state's 0.08 legal limit.
Civil and Regulatory Scrutiny
The restaurant faces a wrongful death lawsuit and an ABCC administrative case.
The state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission has pursued its own case separately. At a July hearing, the ABCC cited Tribu for 26 counts of selling alcohol after authorized closing hours and 31 counts of delivering complimentary drinks connected to the night of the crash. The hearing addressed alcohol-service allegations tied to that night.
Defense Calls Violations Isolated
An attorney for the restaurant argued that the violations occurred during a single evening and cited the restaurant's lack of prior violations, Itemlive reported. The attorney's argument centered on the violations' timing and the restaurant's record.
The wrongful death suit continues, and a court order restricts use of the liquor license as a financial asset. The ABCC held a hearing in July. This is a developing story.
