Cops: Woman tries to forge prescription

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A Campbell woman was arraigned in municipal court Wednesday after police said she tried to get 240 pain pills from a McCartney Road pharmacy with a forged prescription.

Magistrate Anthony Sertick set bond at $7,500 for Edwina Lawrence, 51, who was arraigned via video hookup from the Mahoning County jail on charges of illegal use of drug documents and possession of drugs.

Police were called to the Walgreens on McCartney Road about 2:50 p.m., and when they arrived, the manager told them that Lawrence, who was being held there, had given the pharmacist a slip for 240 pain pills that came from the prescription pad of a Bedford doctor.

The pharmacist told police the store recently had received an email from the Mahoning County Coroner’s office to be on the lookout for people trying to forge prescriptions, because a prescription pad from the same person was found on a body recently near Cuyahoga County.

Reports said the pharmacist told police she also called the number on the pad to find out if Lawrence was a patient with that doctor, and the answer was no.

Lawrence told police she got the slip from a man at a 12th Street store in Campbell, who told her he would give her $50 if she tried to get the pills.

Assistant City Prosecutor Jeffrey Moliterno told Magistrate Sertick that Lawrence has no local criminal record, but she does have prior arrests and convictions in other states, including several in Virginia.

Lawrence also had three pills in her bra when she was arrested, reports said.