MAN CHARGED WITH BILKING PHILANTHROPIST OF $500,000 CLAIMS HE DID NOTHING WRONG

JACKSON -- Bradley W. McIntyre tried to convince a judge that he did nothing criminal in receiving over $500,000 from philanthropist B.W. Harrison, but Judge Michael Bullerdieck decided otherwise.

McIntyre, 40, will be arraigned Tuesday in criminal court on charges that he stole Harrison's money by deceit.

McIntyre had been charged with the class C felony of stealing by deceit for allegations that he had misrepresented himself to Harrison, who said he gave him $531,419 between June 1998 and last December.

Harrison, 89, said about $500,000 of this was intended for studies at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where no records of McIntyre exist.

Scott Reynolds, McIntyre's attorney, attempted to show during a preliminary hearing on Wednesday that the incident should be examined in civil, not criminal court.

"This whole thing has been blown out of proportion," Reynolds said.

Harrison, a retired supervisor for the state agricultural extension service, told the court he had first become aquainted with McIntyre in June 1998. As McIntyre did occasional work on Harrison's house and property, Harrison said he talked about his plans to attend a university and study engineering.

McIntyre had said he was already accepted by the University of Missouri at Columbia, at Rolla, and SIU-Carbondale.

When McIntyre decided to attend SIU-Carbondale, Harrison offered to help him.

"I tried to put up money for him to go forward with the program he outlined," Harrison said.

Harrison wrote McIntyre several checks for large amounts, including one in June 1999 for $70,000. It was to pay for fees, Harrison said.

Harrison went to the bank to help McIntyre cash another check written last November for $40,200.

"He said the school was demanding it," Harrison said.

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. The majority of Harrison's checks to McIntyre were notated as loans.

Harrison told the court that some of the money had been given to McIntyre to pay for medical bills, labor at his house and repairs on McIntyre's, which he said had suffered in a fire. But Harrison asserted that the majority was for college, where McIntyre had said he was studying engineering.

"He told me he was enrolled and he told me what his grades were," Harrison said. "And that was a damn lie."

Reynolds asked if Harrison had ever formed a contract obligating McIntyre to repay the loans.

"No," Harrison said. "I trusted him."

Harrison became suspicious about McIntyre last fall. He said he had asked McIntyre several times to give him receipts, but McIntyre said offices were closed whenever he went to get them.

Harrison decided to inquire about him with university officials in Carbondale, Ill. He received a letter from the admissions office stating that McIntyre was not enrolled.

An official from SIU-Carbondale testified that no records of McIntyre existed at the university. A record would have been created even if McIntyre had been contacted by telephone or letter, said Stephen Foster, associate director for admissions.

"After that, my attorney pointed out to me that he was a troublemaker," Harrison said.

The academic costs for an engineering student to attend SIU-Carbondale is approximately $10,000 annually, Foster said.

Harrison responded that he believed that McIntyre was exaggerating the costs, but he didn't know by how much.

"I don't know that any of these universities' costs have gone down," Harrison said.