Career
She was a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Maryland until her resignation from the position in 2015. In September 2015, she pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter and was sentenced a month later to seven years in prison. In 2014, Cook was the first woman elected by the diocese to become a bishop and she was consecrated as suffragan to Eugene Sutton.
Cook was one of four finalists for the office of suffragan bishop and was elected on the fourth ballot.
Cook was placed on administrative leave at the end of 2014 after involvement in a traffic fatality in north Baltimore. She was charged with drunk driving, texting while driving, and leaving the scene of the crime, in addition to vehicular manslaughter in the death of cyclist Thomas Palermo.
On January 22, 2015, the standing committee of the diocese requested that Cook resign her position. Cook was arraigned on more than a dozen charges—including manslaughter, Driving under the influence, and leaving the scene of an accident.
At the arraignment hearing on April 2, 2015, she entered a plea of not guilty and a trial date was set for June 4, 2015.
On June 4, 2015, the trial was postponed to September 9, 2015. On May 1, 2015, Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Presiding Bishop, announced that both she and the Diocese of Maryland had accepted Cook"s resignation as a bishop and as an employee of the diocese. Following Cook"s resignation Sutton and the standing committee named Chilton R. Knudsen as Assistant Bishop for the Diocese of Maryland.
On September 8, 2015, state prosecutors and Cook agreed to a plea bargain.
Cook pled guilty, and the prosecutors asked for a twenty-year sentence (with ten years suspended). On October 27, 2015, she was sentenced to seven years in prison, and was taken into custody immediately afterwards.
