Police Officer Found Not Guilty in Road Rage Fight Resigns

A 7-year Howard County Police Department veteran who was found not guilty of assault in November after being accused of attacking a Washington Post delivery driver has resigned.

Police spokesperson Sherry Llewellyn said the officer, Lawrence Cameron Cook, resigned on Jan. 1, before the conclusion of a police internal investigation. Llewellyn said Cook did not provide a reason for his resignation.

Cook, 31, of the 4900 block of Dorsey Road in Ellicott City, was charged with second-degree assault after a Washington Post delivery driver said Cook attacked him in a Giant parking lot in Ellicott City around 4:30 a.m. on March 18.

Cook and the delivery driver, Craig Kesler, 29, both testified during Cook's trial that before the incident they exchanged words while in their cars on the road. A grainy video caught the two men's interaction in the parking lot, but Howard County Circuit Court Judge Richard S. Bernhardt said he couldn't make out who was who in the video.

Bernhardt found Cook not guilty after determining that Kesler's statements were inconsistent. When Bernhardt issued his ruling he said "it was disturbing" that Cook didn't try to contact police after the fight because he testified that Kesler initiated the fight with him.

Kesler said during his testimony that Cook pulled up behind him at the Giant, where he was making a delivery, approached him and threw him to the ground.

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