Sarasota News Leader

01/11/2013

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TRIAL AND COMPLAINT A vehicle driven by an allegedly drunken driver struck runner Donna L. Chen on Siesta Key in the curve near St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church on Jan. 7, 2012. File photo TRIAL DATE SET IN CRIMINAL CASE INVOLVING RUNNER'S DEATH ON SIESTA KEY IN JANUARY 2012 AS HER FAMILY BRINGS A NEGLIGENCE SUIT AGAINST THE SHERIFF'S OFFICE By Rachel Brown Hackney Editor The driver of the car that struck and killed a Siesta Key runner on Jan. 7, 2012 is expected to go on trial Sept. 9 on criminal charges stemming from the incident, Assistant State Attorney Amanda Gambert told The Sarasota News Leader in an email this week. Because both she and Blake C. Talman's defense attorney had a number of trials already scheduled this year, Gambert wrote in an earlier email, she had not expected a date could be set before late summer. In the meantime, the Sarasota County Attorney's Office is preparing an answer to a com- plaint filed by the woman's family against the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office 12 days before the first anniversary of her death. The complaint seeks $15,000 in damages. Wellington C. Chen, husband of Donna L. Chen, who was 53 when she died last year, says in the complaint that Talman, whose 2000 Nissan Altima struck his wife on Midnight Pass Road, "was clearly intoxicated and had an open bottle of liquor in one hand and his car keys in his other hand" when deputies stopped him on Siesta Public Beach earlier the same day.

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