Pastor charged with attempting to forge drug prescription

MOUNT VERNON, Ala. -- An assistant pastor at a Mount Vernon church faces a series of drug charges, after authorities said she tried to forge drug prescriptions and was found with hundreds of pills that did not belong to her.

Bertha Wright

Some members of AOH Church of God are upset that Bertha Y. Wright did not tell them about her arrest earlier this month, said Michael Williams, who has belonged to the church his entire adult life.

"I want to see them remove this pastor," Williams said.

The 43-year-old Wright, who lives in Pensacola, was arrested March 5 after trying to fill a fraudulent prescription at a Florida pharmacy, according to the Escambia County Sheriff's Office.

Wright was charged with 11 counts of possessing a controlled substance without a prescription, three counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud, one count of trafficking in hydrocodone and one count of possession of a blank prescription.

Free on $34,000 bail, according to Escambia County Court records, Wright is slated to appear in court Thursday.

Wright's husband, Levon Wright, serves as pastor of the church, and she gives sermons every fourth Sunday, Williams said. Bertha Wright was in church Sunday but did not perform the service, he said.

A woman who answered the phone at the AOH Church of God national headquarters in Mobile on Tuesday would only say that the organization "had no information" on the arrest.