The Austin Police Commander and her husband, a retired detective, who died in a motorcycle crash this weekend, were legally drunk at the time of their crash.
Cmdr. Shauna Jacobson and her husband Kurt, ran their motorcycle off Texas Highway 71 in West Travis County Saturday night near Bee Creek – just a short distance from a bar they were visiting.
Kurt Jacobson was driving the bike.
Austin Police Department Chief Stan Knee said Jacobson's blood alcohol level was .24, which is three times the legal limit of .08.
Shauna Jacobson's level was .33, more than four times the legal limit, and a fraction away from "alcohol poisoning."
Knee said Shauna Jacobson was one of the best police officers he's ever worked with, and her husband also served with honor before retiring.
Still, he knows they were breaking the law.
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Jacobsens were drunk
Both Kurt and Shauna Jacobsen were well over the legal limit of blood alcohol content.
 
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"I think everybody in this room wished it didn't happen, but we need to realize that it did happen. There's an expectation in the community that we follow the law. That's my expectation and I believe the expectation of everybody in this department," Knee said.
The night started out as a benefit for an APD officer with multiple sclerosis.
"I said, 'Well, let's do something. I didn't do it. The party came in here. And, I donated a full barbecue benefit at $10 a plate. And every plate went to the lady," said Bobby Joe Bailey the owner of Cedar's Bar and Grill off of Highway 71.
More than a hundred people came out, most were APD officers.
At that party, Kurt Jacobson drove his motorcycle into the bar and did a burn out on Bailey's floor tiles.
"He throttled it out … Finally, when I could say something to him, I said, 'You need to get that thing out of here,' " Bailey said.
The department will go through administrative review to decide if any other officers there violated policies, Knee said.
Though Bailey said he is haunted by the accident, he hasn't given up on helping.
"I was trying to do something good and it turned into a fiasco. Would I do it again? I tried to dodge the bullet, but yeah, I'd do it again," Bailey said.
Funeral services for the couple will be Thursday.
