By now you’ve probably seen the mug shot of Episcopal Bishop Heather Cook on the day she was booked for manslaughter stemming from a hit-and-run DUI. In press reports the mug shot generally runs alongside another photo: sometimes a close-up of a bespectacled middle-aged blonde woman, with a clerical collar and dangling earrings framing a wide face and a gap-toothed smile. Another of Cook on the day she was consecrated as a bishop, standing and smiling with friends, miter atop her head and shepherd’s crook in hand. And then there’s the unfortunate image of Cook standing behind an altar, blessing a dozen cruets of wine.
On the Saturday after Christmas, the second ranking bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland was said to be drunk and texting when she steered her Subaru into the bike lane and plowed into Tom Palmero, an avid cyclist, husband, and father of two. With the passenger side of her car’s windshield shattered by the force of the accident, Cook drove on. Another cyclist caught up to the Bishop’s car at a stoplight and rapped on the window. Cook stepped on the gas and disappeared into her gated apartment community.
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