Baltimore bishop faces DUI and texting-while-driving charges in hit-and-run death
A bishop is facing multiple charges in the hit-and-run death of a Baltimore bicyclist last month.
Prosecutors allege that Suffragan Bishop Heather Cook, the No. 2 official in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, was drunk and texting Dec. 27 when she left the road and drove over Thomas Palermo, a 41-year-old father of two, the New York Times and the Baltimore Sun report..
She left the scene after the accident and drove home, prosecutors said, only to return about 20 minutes later. Palermo died at an area hospital a short time later.
At a news conference Friday, Baltimore City state’s attorney Marilyn J. Mosby said Cook faces several charges, including vehicular manslaughter, criminal negligence, driving under the influence of alcohol, texting while driving and leaving the scene of an accident. The Sun notes that this is Mosby’s first high-profile case since taking office this week.
Mosby said Bishop Cook, who had been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol in 2010, was found to have a blood alcohol level of .22 shortly after the accident.
The bishop has been placed on administrative leave and has been barred from all ministerial duties while police and the church investigate, a spokeswoman for the diocese said Friday.
“We are cooperating fully with the Baltimore city police,” she said.
The Times and the Sun note that police officers declined to arrest Cook immediately after the crash. The case has raised questions about fairness in the high-crime city, the Times reported.
