Heather Cook
| Heather Cook |
|
|---|---|
| former Suffragan bishop | |
| Church | Episcopal Church |
| Diocese | Diocese of Maryland |
| In office | September 2014–May 1, 2015 |
| Successor | Chilton R. Knudsen |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 1987 |
| Consecration | September 6, 2014 (Deposed May 1, 2015) by Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 21, 1956 Syracuse, New York, United States of America |
Heather Elizabeth Cook (born September 21, 1956) is a former 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]
References
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- ↑ Episcopal News Service — Maryland diocese ordains Heather Elizabeth Cook as bishop suffragan (Accessed 26 June 2015)
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- ↑ Baltimore Sun
- ↑ Baltimore Brew website.
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