Pastor Charged with Molesting Girls

By Robin Brown
News Journal
August 5, 2012

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20120805/NEWS01/308050047/Pastor-charged-molesting-girls?odyssey=mod|newswell|text||p&nclick_check=1

A longtime Department of Transportation employee who also is a church pastor faces 46 felony charges after an investigation into allegations he had sexual contact decades ago with two girls who were then 8 and 10 years old.

All of the charges filed Thursday against Odell L. Wright, 57, of the Dover area, are felonies, Delaware State Police Master Cpl. Gary E. Fournier said Saturday.

Wright was arraigned on 39 counts of first-degree unlawful sexual intercourse, six counts of unlawful sexual contact and one charge of continual sexual abuse of a child, Fournier said. He was being held in Vaughn Correctional Center near Smyrna on $215,000 secured bail.

Odell L. Wright, pastor of a church in Felton, faces 46 felony charges regarding sex with minors.

According to News Journal files, Wright joined DelDOT in 1984 and was ordained in 2006.

DelDOT spokesman Geoff Sundstrom said Wright, a supervisor in the Canal District, “is using accrued leave from his position at DelDOT.”

According to an affidavit of probable cause, Wright, of the first block of Ardsley Drive in Carlisle Village near Dover, is pastor of the Rescue House of Prayer Church in Felton. No one answered calls to the church.

Police did not say when they became aware of the allegations or how long they investigated before filing charges. They did urge anyone else who may have been victimized by Wright to contact Detective A. Goode at 741-2806.

One victim hadn’t seen Wright since childhood but recognized him recently in the Cheswold Walmart and later identified his photo for police, according to the affidavit.

All six alleged unlawful sexual contacts occurred in Wright’s church with the older girl, according to the affidavit. She told police she was 10 years old when he began to abuse her in July 1992 and it continued through July 1995, Fournier said.

In an interview, she told detectives she “didn’t tell anyone for years about the abuse due to fears that nobody would believe her” because of his position with the church, the documents say.

Detectives became aware of another possible victim, and interviewed that person Wednesday. Her account resulted in 40 charges.

The second alleged victim told police she was 8 when Wright first assaulted her on Chistmas Eve 1989. His sexual abuse continued through Christmas Eve 1991, according to the court papers. Most of the alleged incidents occurred at a home near Cheswold where Wright was staying as a guest of the girl’s mother, police said. One is alleged to have happened in Wright’s home at the time, on Queen Street in Dover.

Contact robin brown at 324-2856 or rbrown@delawareonline.com