Interesting trivia linking the cases of Freddie Gray and ex-Episcopal Bishop Heather Cook.

[kwassa]

Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby is prosecuting both cases. I thought I had seen her before! She doesn't mess around.

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/05/marilyn_mosby_baltimore_prosec.html

In January, the morning after she was sworn into office, she announced manslaughter charges against an Episcopal bishop in the hit-and-run death of a cyclist. The bishop, Heather Cook, had not even been arrested when Mosby told a packed news conference that Cook had been drunkenly text-messaging at the time of the crash.

In other news, Heather Cook resigned her post as Bishop and was defrocked yesterday by the Episcopal Church. It appears that the career of Eugene Sutton, Bishop of Maryland, has been damaged by this case as he was not nominated as a candidate for Presiding Bishop. Those candidates were also announced yesterday.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori announced May 1 that she and Episcopal Diocese of Maryland Bishop Suffragan Heather Cook have reached an agreement that deprives her of her status as an ordained person in The Episcopal Church; moreover, that announcement came on the same day that Cook resigned her diocesan post.

Cook is scheduled to go on trial in June for allegedly causing the Dec. 27 car-bicycle accident in Baltimore that killed bicyclist Thomas Palermo. The simultaneous May 1 announcements do not involve the legal proceedings against Cook, but they do end all ecclesiastical disciplinary matters pending against her.

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2015/05/01/dual-actions-end-heather-cooks-ordained-ministry-employment/

more about the case against her:

A Baltimore grand jury indicted Cook Feb. 4 on 13 counts for allegedly causing the Dec. 27 car-bicycle accident.

Five of the charges listed in the indictment by a Baltimore City grand jury come in addition to those Cook has faced since being charged Jan. 9 with four criminal offenses and four traffic violations.

The grand jury had added charges of driving while under the influence of alcohol per se (a “per se” DUI charge involves drivers whose blood alcohol limit is above the .08% legal limit and can be charged with drunk driving even if their ability to drive does not appear to be impaired), driving under the impairment of alcohol, texting while driving, reckless driving and negligent driving.

The original Jan. 9 criminal charges included manslaughter by vehicle, criminal negligent manslaughter by vehicle, homicide by driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol per se and homicide by driving a motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol.

The traffic charges filed on Jan. 9 included failing to remain at an accident resulting in death, failing to remain at the scene of an accident resulting in serious bodily injury, using a text messaging device while driving causing an accident with death or serious injury, and driving under the influence of alcohol. The grand jury added to the two failure-to-stop offenses a charge of failure to stop the vehicle as close as possible to the scene of an accident.

The failing to remain at an accident resulting in serious bodily injury and the failing to remain at an accident resulting in death are both felony charges.

Cook appeared in court on the charges for the first time April 2 during an arraignment in Baltimore Circuit Court, according to court records. Because she accepted a trial date (June 4) “there’s an inferential plea of not guilty to all the charges,” David Irwin, one of Cook’s attorneys, told reporters outside the courthouse after the arraignment.

Irwin told Episcopal News Service on May 1 that there was been no resolution to the legal charges against Cook. “We hope to make progress in resolving the case, but we’re still involved in the discovery process and in the evaluation process,” he said, referring to the pre-trial process

in which both sides exchange information about the witnesses and evidence they’ll present at trial.

Cook faces a combined maximum penalty of at least 39 years in prison and a $39,000 fine, depending on whether her 2010 arrest and subsequent “probation before judgment” sentence is considered a first offense for any sentence she might receive if she were convicted of the charges of driving under the influence of alcohol and/or driving while under the influence of alcohol per se.

[hrmjustin]

1. So sad. My prayers for all involved in both cases.

[okasha]

2. I hope she'll plead guilty and spare the victim's family a trial.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. I hope that the perpetrators of both crimes are convicted and punished to the full extent of the law

[cbayer]

4. She's a busy woman and getting a lot of press.

Seems like a stand up person.

[kwassa]

5. Mosby is pretty impressive so far.

Many here were predicting that the Bishop would get off. The opposite has happened.

[cbayer]

6. She should not get off.

It's a tragedy, but personally I think they need to make an example of her.