RELIGION

Driving drunk: Bishop who killed cyclist seeks early release

Associated Press
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FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Baltimore Police Department shows former Episcopal Bishop Heather Cook. The former Episcopal bishop who struck and killed a cyclist while driving drunk in Baltimore is expected to ask for early release from her seven-year prison sentence on Tuesday, May 9, 2017. (Baltimore Police Department via AP, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - This photo provided by the Baltimore Police Department shows Bishop Heather Cook. The former Episcopal bishop who struck and killed a cyclist in Baltimore while driving drunk will remain in prison after the Maryland Parole Commission on Tuesday, May 9, 2017, rejected her plea for early release. Cook pleaded guilty in October 2015 to manslaughter, drunken driving and leaving the scene. She is serving a seven-year prison sentence. (AP Photo/ Baltimore Police Department, File) (The Associated Press)

Rachel Palermo, widow of Thomas Palermo, reads a brief statement to the media after a parole hearing of Heather Cook, Tuesday, May 9, 2017, in Jessup, Md. Cook, a former Episcopal bishop who struck and killed cyclist Thomas Palermo in Baltimore while driving drunk, will remain in prison after the Maryland Parole Commission rejected her plea for early release. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/The Baltimore Sun via AP) (The Associated Press)

A former Episcopal bishop who struck and killed a cyclist while driving drunk in Baltimore will ask for early release from her seven-year prison sentence.

Heather Cook, once the second-highest-ranking Episcopal leader in Maryland, pleaded guilty in October of 2015 to manslaughter, drunken driving and leaving the scene. On Tuesday she's expected to ask the Maryland Parole Commission for early release. She was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Cook struck and killed 41-year-old cyclist Tom Palermo on Dec. 27, 2014. She left the scene for 30 minutes before returning, and her blood alcohol level was 0.22 — far higher than Maryland's legal limit of 0.08.

Cook, who was the first female bishop in her diocese, had previously been arrested for drunken driving in 2010.