MARYLAND
Washington Post
By Michelle Boorstein April 2
An Episcopal bishop charged in the hit-and-run death of a bicyclist pleaded not guilty Thursday in Baltimore Circuit Court, where a judge set June 4 as the date for her manslaughter trial.
Heather Cook, who last year was installed as the Maryland Diocese’s first female bishop, is charged with driving while inebriated and texting when she struck and killed Thomas Palermo, 41, a father of two, last December.
Cook hasn’t spoken publicly since her arrest, and her lawyer, David Irwin, hasn’t commented except to say that she acknowledges she was involved in the crash and that she has been in a residential treatment center since the incident.
The collision, which police said happened after Cook veered into the bike lane, horrified Baltimore-area cyclists, who noted that she left the scene despite having a heavily broken windshield.
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