We recently discussed the case of Heather Cook, 58, Maryland’s second-highest ranking Episcopal leader and the first female bishop. Cook was involved in an alleged fatal hit-and-run in which she hit bicyclist Tom Palermo, 41, on a sunny Saturday afternoon, and left the father of two young children dying of a head wound on the side of the road. She returned 20 minutes later. She has now been charged with drunken driving and manslaughter. This is not Cook’s first alcohol-related offense.
Cook turned herself in to authorities Friday and her bail was set at $2.5 million. The church (which initially stood by Cook and supported her account) has now put her under investigation. It is a remarkable fall from grace for Cook. 
Cook’s father was the rector of Old St. Paul’s. She attended St. Paul’s School for Girls and earned a master’s degree in divinity in 1987 from the General Theological Seminary in New York City in 1987. Last September, she became Maryland’s bishop suffragan — the No. 2 leader of the diocese. Her selection gave Cook a certain celebrity status inside and outside of the church — a symbol for many of the breaking of a glass ceiling for women ministers.
After the accident, Moncure Lyon, 65, of Baltimore, said that he tried to help Palermo and then went looking for the car. He said that a Subaru drove by with a broken windshield and he jumped on his bike to follow it. Lyon, 65, caught up with it at a stoplight and continued to follow as the car entered a nearby gated apartment community.
Four years ago, Cook was involved in a DUI. Police reported that Cook was found driving on the shoulder of the road at 29 miles an hour in a 50 mph zone with a shredded front tire. After smelling alcohol, the officer proceeded to give a road sobriety test but stopped because Cook was so drunk that there was a fear that she would hurt herself just doing the sobriety test. She later registered a .27 blood alcohol reading (the legal limit is .08). In the car, the police found found two small bags of marijuana in the vehicle, along with paraphernalia, and a bottle of wine and a bottle of liquor.
Cook pleaded to the DUI and, in exchange, the pot charge was dropped. (She disclosed the charges when she interviewed for the bishop position).
The fact that Cook returned after being approached by a witness would seem a material factor in judging whether she was fleeing. However, we have seen considerable variation in how hit-and-runs are addressed, particularly in a couple of cases involving police officers (here and here) and a recent case involving a leading college football player. Some of these cases involved the culprits eventually returning to the scene, but there remained criticism over the failure to charge for leaving the scene in the first place. Cook’s case raises such a question as to whether she decided to return after being confronted by a witness. The facts remain somewhat fluid and we will likely learn more in the coming days. With the shattered windshield, there is also the possible claim of being disoriented.
Less than four months earlier, Cook was ordained as the diocese of Maryland’s first female bishop. She attended an Episcopal girls school and had served as a boarding school chaplain, an assistant at a parish in New York and a member of two diocesan staffs. Her father, also a priest, raised his family in the historic Old St. Paul’s Episcopal Church rectory in downtown Baltimore. According to Cook’s autobiographical statement, when Cook herself was ordained as a deacon, her father removed “the stole from around his own neck and placed it over mine.”
Cook’s struggle with alcohol has classic elements of a multigenerational addiction. Her father was an alcoholic, admitting in a sermon that he had suffered a relapse and seeking treatment.
She now faces charges of felony vehicular manslaughter, criminal negligent manslaughter, failure to remain at the scene of an accident resulting in serious injury and death, using a text messaging device that resulted in an accident and three drunken driving charges. That could add up to more than 20 years in prison.
It is my understanding that in CA, when you get convicted of a DUI or DWI, you have to sign a statement that you understand that driving while impaired can cause a fatal accident, and that you can be charged with homicide if you do it again, and someone dies.
I could be wrong, but that’s what I recall. My husband’s friend is an alcoholic repeat DUI offender. He just got his second one just a few months after his first. Unfortunately, while they do allow for harsher sentencing if someone dies, it has gotten less likely that someone will do jail time for DUI alone. CA has been emptying out its prisons due to overcrowding, with the obvious result of higher crime. I would have suggested tent prisons in Death Valley, rather than taking away justice for victims and consequences for crime, but no one asked me.
“Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time” kind of loses its significance if the second half of the phrase no longer applies.
Karen, Alcoholics can function @ much higher BAC’s than non alcoholics. Tolerance.
Nick – there are no studies that show that alcoholics function with higher levels of alcohol in them, just that they think that they can function with higher levels of alcohol in them. 🙂
Father, The prior knowledge and coverup of this woman’s alcoholism and prior DUI is what makes this case a multi million dollar claim. The sexual abuse case I mentioned ironically had an alcoholic priest w/ prior abuse and also covered up. The settlement was very large.
Canon – Oh my gosh, she was driving drunk AND texting???? And at a BLA 0.22? How was she still conscious? That is also a serious willful omission if the convention was not informed.
Paul, I did not say, nor did I imply, politics was the sole purview of organized religion. Indeed, college campuses have some of the nastiest politics known to man. Those elitists liberals are one nasty lot.
I wonder…imagine this scenario.
Headline
Drunk female priest kills a dad in broad daylight.
Narrative
A known drunk but well connected educated narcisstic high ranking White woman clergy kills father of _ in broad daylight. Conspiracy in diocese to elect woman as bishop at any cost leads to known alcoholic drug using priest killing a father of _ _ . Head bishop is sorry. Nominating committee in hiding. Riots in street. Cathedral windows smashed. Other churches in flames.
Diocese admits complicity and establishes multimillion dollar fund for children and widow. National church informs clergy that even a misdemeanor DUI is an automatic 30 day suspension.
This is just so sad. The lives of those two kids has been shattered.
Drunk drivers are like missiles with no guidance system on our freeways. We’ve lost a teenage family member to a drunk driver. That hole will never be filled or get any better.
I wish that after her DUI and DWI 4 years ago, they had installed a breathalyzer on her ignition permanently. Alcoholics often suffer denial and some just won’t stay off the road while impaired. I’ve heard alcoholics tell me they think they drive better drunk. Their judgment system is impaired, so they could be holding a steering wheel, jogging by the side of the road, thinking they were driving great.
I am unclear if she knew she had been spotted by the witness. The article says he followed her car, but not if he approached her. Did she return because she could not escape her conscience, or did she return because she knew she was caught? If it makes no difference if a driver returns after 20 minutes, or never, I imagine less drivers would have that moment of conscience when they return. I would hope that they would have two different levels of punishment for leaving the scene of an accident – with a harsher penalty if they never returned, vs left briefly and then returned.
Father Morrissey, I am a PI and did work for a major insurer on a horrible sexual abuse civil case in the Catholic Church. This was back in the early 90’s, before the feces hit the fan. The claims almost bankrupt a few insurers and it’s my understanding no company will write policies for the Catholic Church. I believe they are self insured now.
When it comes to insurance company requirements, they do call the shots. That said, all companies have different levels of verification. Some are sticklers, some less so. As you know, they hire the attorney to defend the church in cases like this. The smart companies hire very good attorneys. The attorney I worked for defending a Wisconsin diocese was one of the best.
Yes Canon, that was my point. It reminds me of this quote by Reagan:
“Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
I would add that the other certainty in life is somehow a lawyer is involved.
Nick….see note for Olly above
Olly
By our very existence and as soon as we are self aware…..it’s all politics.
1/11/14. This Bishop just charged with DUI ETC PLUS TEXTING.
(This post is a copy and paste from the earlier thread on this subject.)
I think most saw this one coming. Maybe not the texting. But BLA was .22. Previous conviction was for .27.
I’ll state my question early (if any law experts read this)
Given what is known from previous case and the briefest of detail below, how deep are the pockets on the part of the diocese?
Civil liability? See below.
What I did not expect to read was that the convention which elected her was not informed of the past conviction and circumstance. The nominating body knew but did not reveal. There was supposed to have been a psych consult prior to nomination as well.
Now since she was elected a suffragan (subordinate to #1), I wonder if the diocesan bishop (#1 person) had been informed before the presentation to the electing convention.
Unless I missed a report or it was not mentioned, where is the rehab data from what should have followed the 1st case? Was there rehab. Why not?x
Truth be told, it’s the insurance company which drives the background searches since the $3 M sex misconduct issue case decades ago in Colorado. The diocese and ins. co. paid…the priest had already filed bankruptcy as I recall.That one was a consensual extramarital affair. Now the BIs are even more intensive.
Politics is rampant………
We need our chaplain, Father Morrissey, to weigh in on this. He indicated she never should have been installed as bishop. Politics is rampant in organized religions.
Nick – politics is rampant in education, not just organized religion.
I don’t believe she will be successful in her argument of returning to the scene contemporaneously with the collision. I reviewed the crash site on Google Street View and where the collision happened. The accused would drive toward town, turn around at some point, pass the scene and that is where the other cyclist took chase and followed her to the gated apartment complex which is several blocks away. She had two opportunities to stop according to statutory mandate: the collision location; and then when she passed it by.
I have to disagree the window being shattered would be disorientating and hence be a factor that could be successfully argued before the trier of fact. That on the contrary would be certainly and plainly indicative a collision had occurred and if the defendant was in fact disorientated which I could concede for if a head injury took place in which the defendant struck the windshield, the disorientation would be difficult to argue in that the defendant had the faculty to drive away and then return some time later.
Of course, it could be said she was so intoxicated she did not realize what was happening, however this most likely is a case of voluntary intoxication and, though I cannot necessarily speak from a point of intimate knowledge of this state’s principals of culpability, it is therefore not excusable from a criminal law point of view but can be used in lowering potentially the sentencing. Yet, I have not seen this used very often in DUI Homicide cases as the intoxication is a necessary element of the offense.
The allegation she was confronted by a witness is going to make it difficult for her to establish a good defense to leaving the scene.
In as far as mentioned where other celebrities or connected individuals were let off easily by virtue of their status, that is an offense to justice in my view. This woman, if convicted, should receive no different treatment than any other person charged with the same crimes and offender score. I certainly would not like to see where her position as a religious leader is a mitigating or aggravating factor. Other defendants who have chosen a different lifestyle or occupation have the right to equal justice under the law.
DUI kills. How many more deaths do we need before we take seriously the 2nd offense, let alone the first offense of DUI?
Jeso. It is Monday morning and I scroll down the blog and this ugly pussface pops out at us. All the dogs started barking. The dogs want to watch Animal Planet now. This is the kind of posting here which makes people go off line and read books. Books without photos.
Fat, drunk and texting is no way to go through life, sister.
If she doesn’t go to jail or gets off on some jail/clinic arrangement, then the US has slipped further into the double standard. Being religious doesn’t mean you can’t be screwed up. She already got a pass once, then again for not being charged with hit and run. Enough is enough.
Well, the prison will have an in house chaplain.