Ex-Episcopal bishop who killed bicyclist gets out of prison
Posted May 14, 2019 10:36 am.
BALTIMORE — A former Episcopal bishop who fatally struck a bicyclist while drunk and texting behind the wheel more than four years ago has been released from a Maryland prison.
Heather Cook was the second-highest-ranking Episcopal leader in the mid-Atlantic state when the fatal Baltimore crash occurred two days after Christmas 2014. Her lawyer says she was released Tuesday from the Maryland Correctional Institute for Women.
Cook served just over half of the seven-year sentence she originally received for the death of Thomas Palermo, a married father of two who was fatally struck by Cook’s vehicle. She had earned good behaviour credits and correctional officials have described her as a “model inmate.”
Cook pleaded guilty to manslaughter, drunken driving and leaving the scene, and resigned from the church in May 2015.
The Associated Press
