CHANGE OF VENUE GRANTED MAN ACCUSED OF DECEIT

JACKSON -- A Cape Girardeau man accused of deceiving a philanthropist out of half-million dollars will have his trial in Boone County, the Cape Girardeau County prosecutor's office said.

Bradley W. McIntyre, 40, asked Circuit Court Judge William Syler for a change of venue as he pled innocent to charges of stealing by deceit during his arraignment on Monday.

No trial date has been set.

McIntyre obtained $531,419 through checks from B.W. Harrison of Cape Girardeau over a year and a half, the prosecutor's office said. A large part of the money was given to McIntyre under the premise that he was studying engineering at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and needed the funds for his education, the prosecutor's office said.

McIntyre had never been enrolled as a student at the university, a university official said at a preliminary hearing on Feb. 16.

Harrison, 89, acknowledged that he had given money to McIntyre. Harrison said he had gotten to know McIntyre because McIntyre did small repair jobs at his residence.

Harrison donated $800,000 in stocks to make the purchase of the old St. Vincent Seminary by Southeast Missouri State University possible in 1998. He made most of his money in the stock market.