Heather Cook

The Right Reverend
Heather Cook
Former Suffragan Bishop of Maryland
Church Episcopal Church
Diocese Diocese of Maryland
In office September 2014 – 1 May 2015
Successor Chilton R. Knudsen
Orders
Ordination 1987
Consecration September 6, 2014 (deposed May 1, 2015)
by Katharine Jefferts Schori
Personal details
Born (1956-09-21) September 21, 1956
Syracuse, New York, United States

Heather Elizabeth Cook (born September 21, 1956) is a defrocked bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States. She was a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Maryland until her resignation from the position in 2015. In September 2015, she pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter and was sentenced a month later to seven years in prison.

Ordained ministry

In 2014, Cook was the first woman elected by the diocese to become a bishop and she was consecrated as suffragan to Eugene Sutton.[1][2] Cook was one of four finalists for the office of suffragan bishop[3] and was elected on the fourth ballot.[4] She was the 1,081st bishop consecrated in the Episcopal Church.

Traffic fatality

Cook was placed on administrative leave at the end of 2014 after involvement in a traffic fatality in north Baltimore.[5] She was charged with drunk driving, texting while driving, and leaving the scene of the crime, in addition to vehicular manslaughter in the death of cyclist Thomas Palermo.[6] On January 22, 2015, the standing committee of the diocese requested that Cook resign her position.[7] This was followed by the Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, placing formal restrictions on Cook preventing her from presenting herself as an ordained minister of the Episcopal Church.[8]

Cook was arraigned on more than a dozen charges—including manslaughter, DUI, and leaving the scene of an accident. At the arraignment hearing on April 2, 2015, she entered a plea of not guilty and a trial date was set for June 4, 2015.[9]

On June 4, 2015, the trial was postponed to September 9, 2015.[10]

On May 1, 2015, Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Presiding Bishop, announced that both she and the Diocese of Maryland had accepted Cook's resignation as a bishop and as an employee of the diocese. Moreover, it was announced that Cook and the church had reached an accord where Cook received a "Sentence of Deposition" which stripped her of her right to exercise any ordained ministry within the Episcopal Church.[11] Following Cook's resignation Sutton and the standing committee named Chilton R. Knudsen as Assistant Bishop for the Diocese of Maryland.[12]

On September 8, 2015, state prosecutors and Cook agreed to a plea bargain. Cook pleaded guilty, and the prosecutors asked for a twenty-year sentence (with ten years suspended).[13] On October 27, 2015, she was sentenced to seven years in prison, and was taken into custody immediately afterwards.[14]

Cook requested early release in 2017. At a hearing on May 9, 2017 the parole board denied outright her request. The board cited her not taking responsibility for her actions nor showing any remorse as the reasons for ruling the way they did. As a result she is no longer eligible for parole and will be in prison until at least 2019. Her mandatory release date is now October 21, 2022.[15]

References

  1. ↑ Episcopal Diocese of Md. elects first woman bishop, Baltimore Sun, retrieved February 16, 2015
  2. ↑ Episcopal News Service — Maryland diocese ordains Heather Elizabeth Cook as bishop suffragan (Accessed 26 June 2015)
  3. ↑ Nominees – The Diocese of Maryland, Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, retrieved February 16, 2015
  4. ↑ Report from the 230th Diocesan Convention, Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, archived from the original on June 29, 2014, retrieved February 16, 2015
  5. ↑ "Bishop summons clergy to meeting after death of bicyclist in Baltimore". Baltimore Sun. 2015-01-04. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
  6. ↑ "Episcopal bishop to be charged with DUI, manslaughter and leaving scene of accident". Baltimore Brew. 2015-01-09. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
  7. ↑ Letter to Bishop Cook Requesting Resignation (PDF), Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, retrieved February 16, 2015
  8. ↑ Presiding Bishop further restricts ministry of Heather Cook, Episcopal Church, retrieved February 16, 2015
  9. ↑ Miller, Jayne (2015), Trial date set for Bishop Heather Cook, Baltimore, Maryland: WBAL-TV 11, retrieved 2015-04-18
  10. ↑ New trial date set for Bishop Heather Cook, Baltimore, Maryland: Baltimore Sun Newspaper, 2015, retrieved 2015-07-14
  11. ↑ Dual actions end Heather Cook's ordained ministry, employment, Episcopal News Service, 2015, retrieved 2015-05-01
  12. ↑ Maryland diocese names Chilton R. Knudsen as assistant bishop, Episcopal News Service, 2015, retrieved 2015-05-20
  13. ↑ Ex-bishop who killed cyclist pleads guilty to manslaughter, Associated Press, 2015, retrieved 2015-09-09
  14. ↑ Duncarr, Ian (October 27, 2015), Former Episcopal Bishop Heather Cook sentenced to 7 years in drunk-driving death of cyclist, Baltimore, Maryland: The Baltimore Sun, retrieved October 27, 2015
  15. ↑ Pitts, Jonathan (May 9, 2017), Early parole rejected for former Bishop Heather Cook, Baltimore, Maryland: The Baltimore Sun, retrieved May 9, 2017
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