Heather Cook, the former Episcopal bishop who fatally hit a Baltimore bicyclist with her car while driving drunk in December 2014, was released from prison on Tuesday after serving just over half of the seven-year sentence she was originally given, according to The Baltimore Sun.
Cook, 62, will be on supervised probation for five years.
Thomas Palmero, a software engineer and married father of two who was 41 years old, was killed in the incident.
At the time of the accident, Cook was the No. 2 official in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland and was serving as its first female bishop.
Cook pleaded guilty in September 2015 to vehicular manslaughter, driving while intoxicated, driving while texting and leaving the scene of an accident, according to WBAL.
The church also defrocked her.
Witnesses said she left the scene of the crash and did not return until half an hour later. A Breathalyzer test at the time recorded that her blood alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit for driving.
The church’s screening practices came under scrutiny after it emerged that Cook had pleaded guilty to a drunken-driving charge four years before she was approved as a bishop by the Diocese of Maryland.
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