{"id":100825,"date":"2018-03-20T15:48:20","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T21:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/family-of-student-killed-on-north-main-starts-tutoring-fund\/"},"modified":"2018-03-20T15:48:20","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T21:48:20","slug":"family-of-student-killed-on-north-main-starts-tutoring-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/family-of-student-killed-on-north-main-starts-tutoring-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of student killed on north Main starts tutoring fund"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Bobby
Bobby Lehmann pleaded not guilty to two counts of careless driving causing death in connection with a traffic crash that killed two pedestrians in March 2017.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After Fort Lewis College student Allen Duke was killed by a driver last year while walking to work along north Main Avenue, his family learned he was tutoring students during his already busy schedule.<\/p>\n

The Duke family was approached by several other parents at a posthumous graduation held in April 2017 for Allen, who was less than five weeks from graduating with an accounting degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were surprised but so proud to hear from other parents at his posthumous graduation that without his help, their children would not have graduated,\u201d said his father, Brian Duke. \u201cAllen never said a word about it to us, even when he complained to me about not having enough spare time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Duke family recently visited Durango to mark the one-year anniversary of their son\u2019s death and to announce the Allen Duke Memorial Foundation, which seeks to invest in a tutoring center on campus, among other initiatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur family wanted to be here this weekend in Durango to remember him and honor his memory,\u201d Brian Duke said. \u201cWe just decided this was the best place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

On March 18, 2017, Allen Duke, 23, was walking to work at the Abode Inn around 4 p.m. when he was struck by a vehicle on the east side of the 2000 block of Main Avenue, near Royal Motel.<\/p>\n

Another pedestrian died in the crash: Marco Ricchi, 46, who was visiting Durango from Italy.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors charged Bobby Lehmann, 77, with two counts of careless driving resulting in death. Lehmann, who lives in Texas but has a vacation home in Durango, is accused of veering off the road and striking the pedestrians.<\/p>\n

Lehmann pleaded not guilty in January. Calls to his attorney, Joel Fry, were not returned. A jury trial is scheduled for April 26.<\/p>\n

Brian Duke, along with his wife, Emi, and daughter, Brianna, spent some of their time in Durango at the Unitarian Universalist Church.<\/p>\n

Brian Duke said Allen\u2019s twin brother, Evan, decided not to make the trip with the family and stay in Denver, where the family lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is struggling with not only the fact he had to spend his first birthday without his brother but also the anniversary is a difficult thing for him,\u201d Brian said.<\/p>\n

Allen and Evan were only two days past their 23rd birthday when Allen died.<\/p>\n

The Duke family had breakfast at Durango Doughworks and later dinner at El Moro Spirits and Tavern \u2013 both Allen\u2019s favorites. They also held a short memorial at the site where Allen was hit.<\/p>\n

The family\u2019s hope is Allen\u2019s memory will live on through the foundation, which will be an all-volunteer, nonprofit service organization. On top of the tutoring center, the group seeks to help students struggling financially and academically.<\/p>\n

\u201cAllen\u2019s life touched many others on campus,\u201d said Mark Jastorff, FLC vice president for Advancement. \u201cWe\u2019re very pleased that the Duke family is continuing his legacy of helping others.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Duke family also met with 6th Judicial District Attorney Christian Champagne about the court case.<\/p>\n

Brian Duke expressed frustration that the case is being charged as only a misdemeanor.<\/p>\n

With two counts of careless driving resulting in death, the maximum sentence would be two years in a county jail, if found guilty.<\/p>\n

Champagne told The Durango Herald that all evidence in the case points to a misdemeanor rather than a felony charge such as vehicular homicide.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough it\u2019s a terrible and horrible accident that these two young men lost their lives, we base charges on the evidence in the case,\u201d Champagne said.<\/p>\n

Lehmann told authorities he did not remember the crash. He admitted to drinking a 12-ounce beer earlier in the day. A test for blood alcohol content \u2013 taken nearly two hours after the crash \u2013 showed 0.01 percent compared with the 0.08 threshold for drunken driving in Colorado. Lehmann was also found to be driving 32 mph in a 35 mph zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as why it happened, we don\u2019t have an answer,\u201d said Josh Newman, a detective for the Durango Police Department, in a previous interview. \u201cI wish we did. \u2026 It\u2019s unfortunate for the families of the victims. I know they wish they had more explanation, but I just can\u2019t give it to them at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian Duke said he doesn\u2019t want to see Lehmann put in jail. Instead, he\u2019d like to see him be sentenced to probation and community service. But more than anything, he\u2019d like him to express remorse for the crash to the family.<\/p>\n

Brian said Lehmann has sent only a letter with an apology that Brian felt was not genuine.<\/p>\n

The Durango Herald\u2019s attempts to reach Lehmann were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be forgiving, but when someone doesn\u2019t even go out of their way to show you that they\u2019re sorry, it\u2019s really hard to be forgiving,\u201d Brian Duke said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want to see some justice done. He robbed the world of a fine young man.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

was hit by vehicle April 2017 while walking to work<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[254],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-100825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-road-crash"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100825"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=100825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}