MARYLAND
Christian Post
BY LEONARDO BLAIR , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
May 10, 2017
Heather Cook, the former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland who was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2015 for the death of a 41-year-old father in a drunken hit-and-run incident, was denied a request for early parole Tuesday by the Maryland Parole Commission.
Commission Chairman David Blumberg told the Baltimore Sun that Cook was denied parole in part because the two commissioners who ruled on the case felt she “took no responsibility” for her actions and displayed a “lack of remorse” during the 90-minute parole hearing at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup.
Cook made history in 2014 when she became the first female bishop and second-highest ranking official of the Episcopal Dioecese of Maryland. She was stripped of that position less than a year after she was promoted due to the drunk-driving incident which resulted in the death of Thomas Palermo, a 41-year-old married father of two, on Dec. 27, 2014.
Cook reportedly fled the scene twice and was later found to have been drunk and texting as her struggle with alcoholism made national and international headlines.
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