You really can’t help but feel bad for Katie Wolfmeyer. She’s the woman police allege sought out the gunman in Mike Danton’s plot to commit murder. On Monday Wolfmeyer went before U.S. District judge William Stiehl in East St. Louis to plead innocent on federal murder-for-hire conspiracy charges.
And some point after Danton joined the St. Louis Blues (after walking out on the Devils), Wolfmeyer, who is now 19 years old, became involved with him romantically. The FBI alleges that Wolfmeyer became close enough to Danton that she was willing to assist him in committing murder. And the FBI says they have taped telephone calls to prove it.
But when Katie Wolfmeyer joined her lawyer on the courthouse steps to face reporters on Monday afternoon it was hard to view her as a cold-blooded killer. Her attorney, Art Margulis, portrayed her as an innocent victim, a young girl “smitten” with a star athlete, under his spell and taken advantage of.
If Margulis’ assessment of his client is true, it isn’t a far cry to suggest that Danton learned to control and manipulate the people around him from the very man the FBI and prosecutors allege was the target of the murder conspiracy: David Frost.
David Frost was Mike Danton’s agent. He says he wasn’t Danton’s target and that the trial will shed light on his side of the story. Wolfmeyer’s attorney asked Judge Stiehl to force federal prosecutors to reveal witnesses in possibly two other cases where Danton is accused of trying to hire someone to kill Frost. Sound strange? Such is the story of Mike Danton and David Frost.
David Frost is a hockey guy through and through. He coached, mentored, managed, and even took several players into his life, practically as sons. The most notable of the latter group came to be known as the Quinte Four.
When Mike Jefferson was just 11 years old his father introduced him to notable hockey coach David Frost. By the time Jefferson was 15 Frost was serving as an agent for the rising hockey star. When Jefferson reached the age of majority he changed his name to Danton. The change represented a break in his relationship with his family and was an act of allegiance to Frost.
The three other players involved with Frost in the group known as the Quinte Four were Sheldon Keefe, Ryan Barnes and Shawn Cation. All four of the players have had off and on shots in the NHL. It was the behavior of these players that first caused many to form doubts about David Frost.
Observers have been quoted by numerous sources as saying that the boys had a strange devotion to Frost, that he had “brainwashed” them and that he controlled every aspect of their lives. The Quinte Four wound up together in juniors, playing for the St. Michael’s Majors of the OHL. Later, the Majors traded all four players in a lopsided deal to the Barrie Colts. Why would the Majors let four potential star players go? To get away from Frost. At least that’s what team insiders said.
Frost himself has a long rap sheet in the world of hockey justice. He’s been thrown out of junior and bantam leagues for assaulting a player on the bench, falsifying documents, and for undisclosed violations of the OHA rules. When people have gone looking for the story on David Frost’s life they find people who are intimidated and afraid of the man.
When Mike Jefferson’s father first introduced his son to Frost he couldn’t have been happier. Under Frost’s guidance the boy saw opportunities with the premier bantam leagues in Ontario. Those opportunities are what pave the way to the NHL. But now, Mike Danton’s father says that his son absolutely must get away from Frost. He’s already lost his son to another father. Now he hopes he won’t also lose him to prison.
Danton released a hand-written statement from prison back in May where he thanked Frost for his support and further denounced his family. He said, "I have changed my last name to fully distance myself from the Jeffersons and in no means have had or will have anything to do with them in the future."
When Danton first left the Devils he supposedly intended to go to Hollywood in search of a movie career. Instead he went back to hockey and joined the Blues. Now his life is the stuff of movies.
The Plot
By all accounts, David Frost had been living with Mike Danton in his suburban St. Louis apartment throughout much of the spring of 2004. He was certainly there during the time Danton and the Blues were facing the San Jose Sharks in the first round of the NHL playoffs. Danton was in San Jose the night he was arrested by FBI agents. His team was preparing to return home to St. Louis following their elimination in game 5.
The FBI alleges that Danton told Wolfmeyer, whom he had met through her job working at the Blues’ practice facility, that someone was coming down from Canada to kill him. He asked her to find someone who could break into his apartment while he was in San Jose playing the Sharks and kill the supposed murderer.
The federal complaint explains that Wolfmeyer was with friends at a St. Louis restaurant when Danton called and asked her if she knew anyone who could be hired to kill. Wolfmeyer eventually enlisted Justin Levi Jones, who had worked as an intern in the Columbia, IL police dispatcher’s office. He apparently agreed to the plan but later went to the FBI. Once the FBI became involved they began tapping Wolfmeyer and Danton’s conversations. When Wolfmeyer transported Jones to Danton’s apartment complex the FBI moved in to make the arrest.
David Frost was inside the apartment at the time of the arrest. Danton wanted Jones to enter the apartment and kill the man inside and make the scene look like a robbery gone wrong. For the Feds, there is no question that the mysterious killer coming down from Canada that Danton also wanted killed was David Frost. But now, both Danton and Frost are denying that was the case.
Prosecutors will allege that Frost and Danton had been arguing, around the time the playoffs started, about Danton’s use of alcohol, painkillers and his promiscuity with women. They’ll also say that Frost was threatening to go to GM Larry Pleau and reveal this information about Danton’s character. Perhaps Frost had traveled to St. Louis from Canada out of concern for Danton. Perhaps Danton took Frost’s genuine concern as a threat. That may never be clear. For now, Frost and Danton are in lock step on their version of events.
Danton’s defense strategy appears to be that Danton was delusional. He had become dependent on various painkilling drugs. He had convinced himself that a mysterious killer was coming to St. Louis from Canada to have him killed. The strategy itself might just work. If Danton were delusional then the murder-for-hire plot didn’t target a real victim. Prosecutors will have a difficult time convicting a man of trying to kill a figment of his imagination.
But the federal prosecutors trying the case are prepared to move forward. They feel that the evidence, particularly the taped telephone calls, reveal that Danton and Wolfmeyer conspired to commit murder-for-hire. Frost was the only Canadian man in Danton’s apartment the night the murder was to take place. And Danton was clear that he wanted to the killing to occur while he was out of town in San Jose playing the Sharks.
Mike Danton has spent his formative years in constant and close contact with David Frost. To the people around the men, Frost controlled Danton and drove him away from his own family. Many say that Danton constantly sought Frost approval. Perhaps Frost’s disappointment in Danton’s behavior in St. Louis sent the player over the edge. If it’s true that federal prosecutors have witnesses in other Danton attempts to have Frost killed then many more questions remain to be answered.
It’s easy to feel sorry for Katie Wolfmeyer. She’s just a mixed up kid, dating a famous athlete, trusts him when he tells her his life is in danger, and tries to help him protect himself. But maybe Danton deserves a little sympathy as well. After all, there were no lives lost on that May night in St. Louis. In the twisted relationship of Danton and Frost lies the story of a young man, torn away from his family and raised for only one purpose: hockey. He tried to get away once when he left the Devils last year. He was certainly trying to get away from Frost if he did in fact conspire to have him killed. Getting away from Frost is exactly what many in Canadian hockey hope Danton does. But judging from Danton and Frost’s statements to the media in the two months since his arrest, their relationship is closer than ever. And Danton’s best hope to avoid a ten-year prison sentence relies on it staying that way.
Mike Danton and Katie Wolfmeyer’s murder-for-hire conspiracy trials get underway in September.
On a lighter note
Has anyone else seen these John Kerry for President ads where he promotes himself as a hockey player? As far as I know, there’s never been a U.S. President with an ice hockey background. I’m just not sure which segment of the voting population he’s going after with this ad. If you watch the entire thing he promotes himself as a former prosecutor (law and order crowd), a decorated combat veteran (vets and Republicans that wish they were), an esteemed Senator with experience on the Intelligence Committee (he heard of Osama bin Laden before Bush did), a husband and father (family values voters), a hunter (NRA) and then a hockey player?
Judging from the ratings ESPN and ABC get for NHL games and from the hit rate on this weekly feature, I’m thinking that John Kerry might need to highlight a different sport he might have played growing up. But, he’ll definitely get the hockey voters this way. Problem is, there’s probably less of us than voters that made up the difference between Gore and Bush in Florida.
I read on a message board somewhere that someone heard through a friend of a friend that Kerry got himself tossed from a Boston area beer-league not too long back for violating the rules against body-checking. Now that’s pretty cool. At least it beats Bush’s sporting past. Bush was a cheerleader for crying out loud. Then he ran the inter-fraternity stickball league at Yale for a while. He didn’t play mind you. He just took bribes for more favorable contracts…uh, I mean schedules.
In other news
The Pittsburgh Penguins are close to being back in business. Last week they signed free-agent winger Mark Recchi. This week they appear to be very close to a deal with Alexei Kovalev and are also possibly talking with center Alex Zhamnov. To add toughness they went out and signed the rough and tumble Ryan VandenBussche. Now all they need is an arena deal.
Now that Craig Conroy is with the Kings teams looking for centers have turned their attention to Michael Nylander and Josef Stumpel. Atlanta in particular is eyeing these two players as potential second line centers. Brian Rolston has already left Boston for the Minnesota Wild. The poor Bruins appear to be headed the way of the Pens over the last several years.
In a widely publicized move Bruins captain Joe Thornton signed a contract to play in the Swiss Elite League next season in the event of a lockout. Of course, even if there isn’t a lockout, Big Joe could still end up in Switzerland. The Bruins still don’t have Thornton qualified and under contract for next season. The signing with the Swiss League only added to the speculation fueled by Larry Brooks in the New York Post story. Even some Boston media outlets had reported that Thornton had sold his Boston-area home some time last week. That story turned out to be bogus since Thornton simply didn’t renew a lease on one of the two Boston homes he has.
Regardless, the rumors that Thornton wants out of Boston won’t die. If the Bruins do give in to a trade they could seek five first round picks in compensation. Only Mike Keenan is crazy enough to do something like that. But he does want Thornton, badly.
NHL Director of Officials Andy Van Hellemond stepped down from that position late last week. The Toronto Globe and Mail ran a particularly inflammatory story on Tuesday where it was alleged that Van Hellemond was forced out because he was taking cash loans from on-ice officials. The Director of Officials is supposed to make the assignments for playoff officiating duty. Playoff duty is coveted because of the extra pay. A source quoted in the Globe and Mail says that the league became aware that Van Hellemond was giving special treatment to officials who had loaned him money. For the Stanley Cup finals Colin Campbell and others at the league offices made the official placements instead of Van Hellemond. If the story turns out to be true it will be yet another black eye on the sport in a year that’s see its share.
This just in: no progress to report on the labor disagreement. Are these people even planning some meetings anytime soon? You’d think there would be a sense of urgency. So far, most of the negotiations have happened through the press. That’s not good. If the WHA folds before it even gets off the ground here’s to hoping that they’ll pipe in the European games on the hockey package.
Eric Slusher resides in Spokane, WA and covers the NHL for SportsFiends.com through his weekly Wednesday Morning Skate column and other hockey related articles. Readers can contribute to the Wednesday Morning Skate or send comments to Eric by emailing him at eslusher@sportsfiends.com.
