Heather Elizabeth Cook (born September 21, 1956) is a deposed bishop of the

Episcopal Church in the United States The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop of ...

. She was a

suffragan bishop A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdiction ...

in the Diocese of Maryland until her resignation from the position in 2015. In September 2015, she pleaded guilty to

vehicular manslaughter Vehicular homicide is a crime that involves the death of a person other than the driver as a result of either criminally negligent or murderous operation of a motor vehicle. In cases of criminal negligence, the defendant is commonly charged ...

, having killed Tom Palermo while driving under the influence of alcohol and fleeing the scene twice, and was sentenced a month later to seven years in prison. She was deposed from ministry and therefore unable to perform public ministry; however, her ordinations cannot be undone according to

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

sacramental theology.

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 Eugene Taylor Sutton (born January 9, 1954) is the 14th and current Episcopal Bishop of Maryland. Early life and education Sutton grew up in Washington, DC, as a Baptist. He graduated from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, in 1976 and earned a ...

. Cook was one of four finalists for the office of suffragan bishop and was elected on the fourth ballot. 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. 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. On January 22, 2015, the

standing committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

of the diocese requested that Cook resign her position. This was followed by the Presiding Bishop,

Katharine Jefferts Schori Katharine Jefferts Schori (born March 26, 1954) is the former Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church of the United States. Previously elected as the 9th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada, she was the first woman elected ...

, placing formal restrictions on Cook preventing her from presenting herself as an ordained minister of the Episcopal Church. 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. On June 4, 2015, the trial was postponed to September 9, 2015. On May 1, 2015,

, 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. Following Cook's resignation Sutton and the standing committee named Chilton R. Knudsen as assistant bishop for the Diocese of Maryland. On September 8, 2015, state prosecutors and Cook agreed to a

plea bargain A plea bargain (also plea agreement or plea deal) is an agreement in criminal law proceedings, whereby the prosecutor provides a concession to the defendant in exchange for a plea of guilt or '' nolo contendere.'' This may mean that the defendan ...

. Cook pleaded guilty and the prosecutors asked for a 20 year sentence (with 10 years suspended). On October 27, 2015, she was sentenced to seven years in prison, and was taken into custody immediately afterwards. Cook requested early release in 2017. At a hearing on May 9, 2017, the parole board denied her request "in part because she 'took no responsibility' for her actions and displayed a 'lack of remorse.'" On May 14, 2019, after serving just over half of her seven-year sentence, Cook was released "from the Maryland Correctional Institute for Women in Jessup. She will be on supervised parole and probation for five years." She was released after applying for a sentence modification that "changed two of her sentences from consecutive to concurrent" and earning "sentence reductions for good behavior".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Heather Elizabeth 1956 births Women Anglican bishops Living people Religious leaders from Syracuse, New York Place of birth missing (living people) Episcopal bishops of Maryland