DENVER — A Denver judge ruled Monday there is not enough evidence to revoke the bond of a woman accused of driving drunk and killing two Connecticut librarians on their way to the airport.
Sandra Jacobson was arrested and sent to jail last week after a college classmate told authorities he saw her driving away from the Colorado Technical University campus. That prompted prosecutors to allege that she violated conditions of her $250,000 bond, and they asked that it be revoked.
Jacobson is accused of causing a February accident that killed 71-year-old Kate McClelland and 54-year-old Kathy Krasniewicz. Police say Jacobson was driving with a suspended license at the time.
Jacobson told investigators she took cold medicine before and after the crash. Her attorney argues that may have affected the sobriety tests.
Denver District Judge Sheila Rappaport rejected the motion to revoke Jacobson’s bond, saying, “There are a lot of holes in the evidence.”
First, Rappaport noted that there was conflicting dates of when Jacobson’s classmate, Aaron Berg, contended he saw her driving a BMW after class. Berg said it happened Oct. 7, but the Denver investigator who wrote Jacobson’s arrest affidavit testified Berg had first told him it was Oct. 14.
Berg, who works as a parole officer, also said in court he didn’t immediately tell authorities about what he saw because he wasn’t familiar with Jacobson’s case until he searched for her on the Internet. Berg explained that he looked for information on Jacobson because “there was just something that was gnawing at me” about her.
Berg admitted he butted heads with Jacobson in class but said he didn’t report her to police in retaliation for something.
The judge said she also based her decision on the testimony of Jacobson’s roommate and a neighbor, who said each had given Jacobson a ride to and from school Oct. 7 and Oct. 14. A university instructor who teaches on the same nights that Jacobson was going to school also testified she drives a BMW similar to the one Berg claimed he saw Jacobson get into.
After Rappaport issued her ruling, she chided Jacobson, saying she seemed amused when “you felt things were going your way.”
