Chuck Cook, 60; Investigative Journalist, Pulitzer Finalist

Chuck Cook, an award-winning investigative journalist who was a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, has died. He was 60.

Cook, a Moreno Valley resident, died Dec. 26 at Loma Linda University Medical Center of complications from a stroke.

In a journalism career that spanned three decades, Cook worked at numerous newspapers, including the Dallas Morning News, Orange County Register, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and Arizona Republic.

While reporting for the Port Arthur News in Texas, he was a co-finalist for a 1980 Pulitzer Prize for an expose on shoddy waste disposal practices.

In 1988, he and two other Arizona Republic reporters were Pulitzer finalists for their series of articles on corruption and mismanagement in federal Indian programs nationwide and helped spur a Senate investigation.

And in 1989, he and another Arizona Republic reporter were finalists for their articles about risks to elderly Americans from prescription errors, drug interaction and medication abuse.

Cook also made news of his own.

In 1987, he filed an $11-million lawsuit against Orange County, Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates and the city of Santa Ana. The suit alleged that Cook was subjected to illegal surveillance, harassment and intimidation from 1982 to 1985 while he worked for the Register and wrote stories critical of Gates’ management of the county’s jails. Gates denied the allegations.

In 1989, a federal judge dismissed the suit, ruling that Cook filed his complaint too late and did not have enough evidence of wrongdoing to overcome the one-year statute of limitations.

The same year, Cook was fired as editor of the Newhall Signal in Santa Clarita for his handling of a controversial series of investigative articles, written by a team of young reporters. The articles alleged that chemical wastes dumped in Sand and Mint canyons by a defense contractor before 1984 had caused the deaths of members of a local family.

The articles, which Cook defended, were criticized for a variety of reasons. But both Cook and the newspaper officials said his dismissal was the result of “philosophical differences” about the role of a community newspaper.

A native of Center, Texas, Cook played semi-professional football and served in the Army before going to work for small daily and weekly newspapers in his home state. More recently, he used his skills to help insurance companies investigate fraudulent claims.

He is survived by his wife, Svetlana; children from two previous marriages, Danielle Lee, Jessica Beard and Kevin Cook; five grandchildren; a sister, Brooksie Bearden; and a brother, Bob Cook.

A private memorial service is pending.