Chief reacts to Jacobsons' blood alcohol reports

09:25 AM CST on Thursday, December 16, 2004

KVUE.com

The Austin police department is reacting to news from the medical examiner that an Austin police commander and her husband each drank 10 to 12 beers in the hours before their deaths in a Saturday evening motorcycle wreck.

According to Travis County Medical Examiner Robert Bayardo, a blood test showed that APD Commander Shauna Jacobson had a blood alcohol count of .33, Bayardo said. Her husband, retired APD detective Kurt Jacobson, had a blood alcohol count of .24, Bayardo said.

They died around 7 p.m. Saturday at the scene of the off-duty crash on Highway 71 West near Bee Creek in western Travis County. Police said the motorcycle driven by Kurt Jacobson hit a guardrail. Both were thrown from the bike and died.

The couple had earlier been asked to leave Cedars Bar and Grill after Kurt Jacobson rode his motorcycle into the bar and did a donut. The bar was full of police officers attending a benefit.

APD is investigating whether other officers should have interceded.

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APD

Commander Shauna Jacobson

"There's an expectation in the community that we follow the law," said APD Chief Stan Knee at a press conference Wednesday.

"We all wish they had gotten into a vehicle with another officer or called a taxi. Otherwise, they'd be alive today," adds Chief Knee.

The Austin Police Department begins its own investigation Thursday to find out exactly what happened inside the bar.

Knee says he has not questioned the officers who were at the bar, but he says they will be a part of the administrative review.

"If there are policy violations, then we'll look at them," says Knee.

Dr. Robert Bayardo said the autopsy showed that the Jacobsons died of massive trauma caused by the accident. "Helmets would not have helped," he said.

"She was a small person, so the two of them probably each drank between 10 to 12 beers in the hours before they died," Bayardo told KVUE.

The autopsy said Shauna Jacobson weighed 114 pounds and Kurt Jacobson weighed 228 pounds.

Bayardo said that a blood alcohol level of .35 is considered lethal.

The funeral for the Jacobsons will be Thursday, December 16, at 1:00 p.m. at the First Evangelical Free Church. Graveside services will follow at Cook-Walden Forest Oaks on William Cannon Drive.

Chief Knee says he will remember the Jacobsons as law officers who helped break big cases and had a positive impact on the department.

Shauna Jacobson was 46. She'd worked for the Austin Police Department for 20 years. She was the first female detective in homicide and was recently working to solve an old murder in the cold case department to bring Austin hate crimes to light. Recently, Jacobson's work focused more on children.

Her husband was 42. He retired from the department in 2002 after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

According to a press release from APD, Shauna Jacobson graduated from the APD Academy in 1984. She was promoted to detective in 1990 and to sergeant in 1994. In 1997, she was promoted to lieutenant and in 2001 earned the rank of commander. In that rank, she supervised the Centralized Investigations Bureau that includes homicide, robbery, major traffic investigations, sex crimes and child abuse units, the press release said.

Kurt Jacobson graduated from the APD Academy in 1991. He was promoted to detective in 1997.