MAN ADMITS HE DECEIVED CAPE PHILANTHROPIST

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- A Cape Girardeau man pled guilty Thursday to defrauding an 89-year-old philanthropist out of several thousand dollars, the Cape Girardeau County prosecutor said.

But even though Bradley W. McIntyre pled guilty, the 40-year-old man still disputes the amount of money he received from B.W. Harrison of Cape Girardeau, prosecutor Morley Swingle said.

Through his accountant, Harrison has determined that he wrote checks totaling over $531,000 to McIntyre between June 1998 and last December.

McIntyre and his attorney, Scott Reynolds, told Boone County Circuit Judge Frank Conley that approximately $60,000 was stolen by fraud, Swingle said.

McIntyre admitted to the judge that he had deceived Harrison about studying engineering at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. After McIntyre began working at Harrison's home performing maintenance and yard work, he had told Harrison about his need for money to study at the university as a pretext to fraud, Swingle said.

In earlier hearings, Reynolds asserted that only two checks, one for $51,000 and another for $5,000, included memos that specified the money as payments for college expenses. Other money had been given as loans.

But in order to prove fraud as a felony, a prosecutor must show that at least $750 had been swindled, Swingle said.

"He admitted to much more than that," Swingle said.

McIntyre will remain out on bond until he appears before Conley for sentencing on Sept. 18, the prosecutor said. The case was heard in Boone County on a change of venue request by Reynolds.

For the class C felony of fraud, McIntyre could receive up to 7 years in prison.

Since none of the money paid to McIntyre has been recovered, it is possible that the judge could order McIntyre to pay Harrison back, but that would have to take place through a sentence involving probation, Swingle said. But the prosecutor will request that the judge sentence prison time rather than probation.

"The amount taken is too large to order probation," he said.

It is possible that Harrison could recover his money through a civil lawsuit against McIntyre, but the philanthropist has not expressed much interest, Swingle said.

"He has told me that he thinks it's more important that McIntyre goes to prison than seeing that the money is returned," the prosecutor said.