MD Bishop Who Killed Cyclist While Driving Drunk Gets 7 Years An Episcopal bishop who killed a bicyclist in Baltimore while driving drunk has been sentenced to seven years in prison.
Advertisement
At the sentencing, Tom Palermo’s mother Patricia told the court that she had asked God many times why he let her son die and had had a revelation.
At the plea hearing last month, prosecutors said they concluded a drunk Cook drove out of a traffic lane in Roland Avenue and into a bike lane, hitting Palermo and knocking him to the side of the road.
Cook was the first female bishop in her diocese. Cook will serve five years for manslaughter followed by two years for leaving the scene of the accident and will serve a further five years on probation on the completion of her term. After the hearing Cook was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.
The impact threw Palermo onto Cook’s hood and into the windshield of her auto. She was sentenced to seven years in prison Tuesday afternoon.
Prosecutors have said they spoke to Palermo’s family, as they worked to craft the plea deal. Prosecutors said that Cook’s blood-alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit for driving and that she was texting at the time of the crash on December. 27.
Cook was charged in January, less than 24 hours after Marilyn Mosby was sworn into office at Baltimore City’s State’s Attorney.
“It could have sent a stronger signal that our community takes driving under the influence and driving while distracted seriously”, she said.
Advertisement
Cook’s arrest raised questions within the church about how much of her background was known by those who elected her suffragan bishop in 2014, particularly as Palermo’s death made more widely known a 2010 drunken-driving conviction on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Her ties to the church span generations, including a father who was also a priest and had a history of alcohol abuse.
