The venue for a lawsuit that was filed downstate naming the county newspaper and a reporter as defendants has been changed to Leelanau County.

Circuit Court Judge Philip E. Rodgers Jr. last week was assigned the case filed this spring by Marcus Yono alleging defamation of him by the Leelanau Enterprise and reporter Eric Carlson.

The suit by Yono, developer of BayView project in Suttons Bay, alleges that information about him published in the newspaper in February and March 2007 was defamatory. The articles detailed several earlier lawsuits against the developer in Leelanau County, a criminal investigation involving the development, unpaid taxes on the BayView property in Suttons Bay, and numerous construction liens on the property.

In July, a Livingston County Circuit Court judge ordered a change of venue to Leelanau County in the case. The change would move court proceedings from Yono’s home of Livingston County to Leelanau, where the newspaper is located and Enterprise owners Alan and Debra Campbell and reporter Carlson live.

However, attorneys for the developer filed a motion in mid-July to have the change of venue “reconsidered,” arguing that the case should be tried in Livingston County because the actual “damages” sustained by the developer as a result of the newspaper articles occurred there, where Yono does most of his business.

A status conference scheduled for Sept. 13 was called off when the downstate judge denied the motion for reconsideration and granted the change of venue to Leelanau.

Mark G. Clark, attorney for the defendants, said he expects a pretrial conference on the case to be scheduled in coming months.