devilmaster
05-09-04, 01:38 AM
http://images.tsn.ca/images/stories/20040507/danton_60852.jpg
This has really been bugging me tonite. I need to vent.
If you've followed a little bit of the hockey world this past month, (and even if you don't) you've probably heard of the guy in the pic above, Mike Danton. Danton is now beginning his court battle for trying to hire a hitman to kill (which prosecution argues was) his agent, David Frost. Frost continues to claim that he was not the intended target.
Now Danton, (who legally changed his last name from Jefferson, to remove all contact from his estranged family) released a statement without the knowledge of his lawyers, but arranged through Frost, the agent and the man prosecution says that Danton wanted killed, because Frost was threatening to ruin his career by talking to the hockey club about Danton's alcohol abuse and promiscuity.
Confused yet? It gets even stranger. Here is Danton's first statement since being arrested.
"First of all, I'd like to thank my agent, Dave Frost, and his family for all their time and support. Also, my close friends for their co-operation and involvement. I would also like to express my appreciation to the St. Louis Blues organization and players for their caring and support."
"With regards to the Jeffersons, their recent publicity rants are nothing new to myself. The deceptions and lies throughout the past three weeks are a sign of the erratic lifestyle that I have lived. 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."
"This abuse occurred as early as I can remember and also continued until the time I left the household. I was constantly degraded and put down at early ages."
"As mentioned before, I was neglected many daily necessities, as well as the abandonment of love, care and direction."
"One pair of track pants and two t-shirts created an abundance of embarrassment for a young boy going to school such as myself, coupled with the fact that I wasn't given lunch to eat or money to buy lunch. Dinner was rare and, on many occasions, I would visit friends' houses in search of food and washroom use, due to the fact that there was no toilet paper at the Jefferson house."
"I wanted to share this small amount of information with you to set the record straight and show that there are two sides to the story. Also, that I have had no interest and will have no interest in the future to have any contact whatsoever with the Jeffersons."
Needless to say, after reading that, I was interested to find info on this agent David Frost, whom Mike's estranged father called "A Monster".
I found two articles, both written by Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun. One in 1999 when Frost was a coach and later agent in the Toronto minor hockey leagues, and Danton was one of his star pupils. He retold his story on April 21st of this year. It, IMHO, is a chilling story of what parents might accept to get their child to the top, and a chilling story of the controlling power one man can wield on others. Here is the April 21st article.
Wed, April 21, 2004
SECRET AGENT
Mike Danton entangled in David Frost's world
By Steve Simmons, Toronto Sun
When you enter the closed and disturbing world of David Frost, you are entering a murky place of threats and, as Mike Danton has found out, a place of danger. Danton, the local kid hockey player once known as Mike Jefferson, remains in a California jail accused of attempting to arrange a paid assassination. Frost, his former coach, roommate, confidant, and now, officially, his agent, has dismissed reports that he was the target.
Danton, 23, a St. Louis Blues forward, was arrested Friday on charges that he and a 19-year-old St. Louis woman conspired and used a telephone across state lines to set up a killing.
The fallout eventually will be determined by the U.S. justice system. The prelude, though, from those of us who saw trouble coming as early as 1999, is sadly and disturbingly predictable.
Five hockey seasons ago, the St. Michael's Majors traded four of their best players to the Barrie Colts in a deal that from the outside appeared to make little sense. Out of curiosity more than anything else, I asked Terry Koshan, who covered junior hockey at the time: "Why would St. Mike's do this?"
"They want to get away from Frost," Koshan answered.
"Who's Frost?" I asked.
"You don't want to know," he said.
Thus begun an exhaustive one-month journey into a man lurking in the hockey shadows, with truths being twisted, controlling a clique of "his boys" and whispers and rumours (not of a sexual nature) -- but hardly anyone willing to go on the record to say what they knew.
People were afraid of him. They were afraid if they spoke out against him they would be the ones injured in the end. They were concerned if they said what they knew about how he operated, about the control he had over his kids, they would end up punished. I interviewed almost 100 people, many of them refusing to go on the record, about Frost, including a 140-minute session with him at what was then his Brampton home, and the more I learned, the more cryptic the story became.
"The guy is a lunatic," Rob Ciccarelli, Dino's brother and owner of the Sarnia Sting, said at the time. "What worried me is he had a cult-like attraction for (Jefferson/Danton). I have never in my history seen anything like that. The kid totally did everything that Frost said. It was shocking."
Five years ago, Steve Jefferson, now Mike's estranged father, told me that "Dave Frost is the best thing that ever happened to my kid."
Five years later, he says his son, who changed his name, has to "get the hell away" from Frost.
The more I learned about David Frost and the more people I asked about him, the more nervous, apparently, he became.
During a five-day span after interviewing him at his home, before the column appeared in March 1999, Frost telephoned the Toronto Sun sports department at least 15 times issuing threats of lawsuits even though he had no idea what was going to be reported about him. He often called, made a point, then called back a few minutes later. He also called my home on a number of occasions -- as did unidentified others on his behalf, some of them hanging up immediately, some of them threatening harm if the story appeared.
It was about that time Mike Jefferson called, after numerous requests to interview him were denied. And it was about that time Sheldon Keefe, another Frost insider, called, suddenly available to be interviewed.
In the years that passed, long after the story appeared and the hockey world went back to its whispering and disdain for Frost, Mike Jefferson would occasionally phone me, just to let me know he was doing all right.
He phoned after he walked out on the New Jersey Devils and said he was trying to make it as an actor in Hollywood. He told me on another occasion that he "had straightened his life out" and that everything was fine. He was like a little boy searching for approval.
The kind of approval that Frost, apparently, provided him with.
The approval that came from the David Frost who once was found guilty of assaulting a hockey player on his own bench, once suspended indefinitely for allegedly falsifying a document (he denies the charge) by the GTHL, once suspended indefinitely by the Ontario Hockey Association, and yet somehow was allowed to be certified as an agent by the National Hockey League Players' Association, even though old Frost associate Bob Goodenow was fully aware of the history. Mike Gillis, the player agent who once utilized Frost as a birddog, has distanced himself from Frost, almost denying there was ever any kind of professional relationship.
DAUGHTER MARRIED FROST
And one of the families associated with Frost, a well-known hockey name, has watched as their teenage daughter inexplicably left home, moved in and eventually married Frost. "I've asked my daughter to come home," the mother said, pleading that her identity be protected. "My daughter is an idiot. She will not listen. I said to her 'This is the FBI we're talking about here. Now's your chance. Get away from him and come home.'
"I don't know what control he has over her. But he has always had this control."
A control unexplained. A control witnessed by many who have watched with trepidation a control they couldn't understand.
"Success breeds jealousy," David Frost told me in 1999. "I kind of like the controversy as long as I know what I'm doing is best for the player.
"I don't care who I rub the wrong way. I'm not about to change. Not for anybody."
If you've read this far, thank you, but I won't post the 1999 award winning article in its entirety, but here is a link to it. http://www.sunmedia.ca/DunlopAwards/frost.html
I experienced something very similar last year to the investigation by Steve Simmons. As a trustee, we had to deal with a football coach who acted inappropriately and put his players, in the board's opinion, at risk. This football coach, who has a track record of some questionable actions and poor judgement, is a winner wherever he has been, and when it came time to decide to disipline him or not, I was swamped with the parents of kids who were more worried that banning the coach from a playoff game was going to wreck the scholarships that were coming their way than the coach's actions which put the kids in harm's way in the first place.
Who to believe in the above story? In the end, if the stories of David Frost are true, its tragic that he won't be the one punished.
My hope is that alot of the parents out there who hope for that multi-million dollar sports contract, (no matter what sport) or put their 6 year old through beauty pagents, will read this and wake up.
My cynic self knows the answer.
Steve
This has really been bugging me tonite. I need to vent.
If you've followed a little bit of the hockey world this past month, (and even if you don't) you've probably heard of the guy in the pic above, Mike Danton. Danton is now beginning his court battle for trying to hire a hitman to kill (which prosecution argues was) his agent, David Frost. Frost continues to claim that he was not the intended target.
Now Danton, (who legally changed his last name from Jefferson, to remove all contact from his estranged family) released a statement without the knowledge of his lawyers, but arranged through Frost, the agent and the man prosecution says that Danton wanted killed, because Frost was threatening to ruin his career by talking to the hockey club about Danton's alcohol abuse and promiscuity.
Confused yet? It gets even stranger. Here is Danton's first statement since being arrested.
"First of all, I'd like to thank my agent, Dave Frost, and his family for all their time and support. Also, my close friends for their co-operation and involvement. I would also like to express my appreciation to the St. Louis Blues organization and players for their caring and support."
"With regards to the Jeffersons, their recent publicity rants are nothing new to myself. The deceptions and lies throughout the past three weeks are a sign of the erratic lifestyle that I have lived. 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."
"This abuse occurred as early as I can remember and also continued until the time I left the household. I was constantly degraded and put down at early ages."
"As mentioned before, I was neglected many daily necessities, as well as the abandonment of love, care and direction."
"One pair of track pants and two t-shirts created an abundance of embarrassment for a young boy going to school such as myself, coupled with the fact that I wasn't given lunch to eat or money to buy lunch. Dinner was rare and, on many occasions, I would visit friends' houses in search of food and washroom use, due to the fact that there was no toilet paper at the Jefferson house."
"I wanted to share this small amount of information with you to set the record straight and show that there are two sides to the story. Also, that I have had no interest and will have no interest in the future to have any contact whatsoever with the Jeffersons."
Needless to say, after reading that, I was interested to find info on this agent David Frost, whom Mike's estranged father called "A Monster".
I found two articles, both written by Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun. One in 1999 when Frost was a coach and later agent in the Toronto minor hockey leagues, and Danton was one of his star pupils. He retold his story on April 21st of this year. It, IMHO, is a chilling story of what parents might accept to get their child to the top, and a chilling story of the controlling power one man can wield on others. Here is the April 21st article.
Wed, April 21, 2004
SECRET AGENT
Mike Danton entangled in David Frost's world
By Steve Simmons, Toronto Sun
When you enter the closed and disturbing world of David Frost, you are entering a murky place of threats and, as Mike Danton has found out, a place of danger. Danton, the local kid hockey player once known as Mike Jefferson, remains in a California jail accused of attempting to arrange a paid assassination. Frost, his former coach, roommate, confidant, and now, officially, his agent, has dismissed reports that he was the target.
Danton, 23, a St. Louis Blues forward, was arrested Friday on charges that he and a 19-year-old St. Louis woman conspired and used a telephone across state lines to set up a killing.
The fallout eventually will be determined by the U.S. justice system. The prelude, though, from those of us who saw trouble coming as early as 1999, is sadly and disturbingly predictable.
Five hockey seasons ago, the St. Michael's Majors traded four of their best players to the Barrie Colts in a deal that from the outside appeared to make little sense. Out of curiosity more than anything else, I asked Terry Koshan, who covered junior hockey at the time: "Why would St. Mike's do this?"
"They want to get away from Frost," Koshan answered.
"Who's Frost?" I asked.
"You don't want to know," he said.
Thus begun an exhaustive one-month journey into a man lurking in the hockey shadows, with truths being twisted, controlling a clique of "his boys" and whispers and rumours (not of a sexual nature) -- but hardly anyone willing to go on the record to say what they knew.
People were afraid of him. They were afraid if they spoke out against him they would be the ones injured in the end. They were concerned if they said what they knew about how he operated, about the control he had over his kids, they would end up punished. I interviewed almost 100 people, many of them refusing to go on the record, about Frost, including a 140-minute session with him at what was then his Brampton home, and the more I learned, the more cryptic the story became.
"The guy is a lunatic," Rob Ciccarelli, Dino's brother and owner of the Sarnia Sting, said at the time. "What worried me is he had a cult-like attraction for (Jefferson/Danton). I have never in my history seen anything like that. The kid totally did everything that Frost said. It was shocking."
Five years ago, Steve Jefferson, now Mike's estranged father, told me that "Dave Frost is the best thing that ever happened to my kid."
Five years later, he says his son, who changed his name, has to "get the hell away" from Frost.
The more I learned about David Frost and the more people I asked about him, the more nervous, apparently, he became.
During a five-day span after interviewing him at his home, before the column appeared in March 1999, Frost telephoned the Toronto Sun sports department at least 15 times issuing threats of lawsuits even though he had no idea what was going to be reported about him. He often called, made a point, then called back a few minutes later. He also called my home on a number of occasions -- as did unidentified others on his behalf, some of them hanging up immediately, some of them threatening harm if the story appeared.
It was about that time Mike Jefferson called, after numerous requests to interview him were denied. And it was about that time Sheldon Keefe, another Frost insider, called, suddenly available to be interviewed.
In the years that passed, long after the story appeared and the hockey world went back to its whispering and disdain for Frost, Mike Jefferson would occasionally phone me, just to let me know he was doing all right.
He phoned after he walked out on the New Jersey Devils and said he was trying to make it as an actor in Hollywood. He told me on another occasion that he "had straightened his life out" and that everything was fine. He was like a little boy searching for approval.
The kind of approval that Frost, apparently, provided him with.
The approval that came from the David Frost who once was found guilty of assaulting a hockey player on his own bench, once suspended indefinitely for allegedly falsifying a document (he denies the charge) by the GTHL, once suspended indefinitely by the Ontario Hockey Association, and yet somehow was allowed to be certified as an agent by the National Hockey League Players' Association, even though old Frost associate Bob Goodenow was fully aware of the history. Mike Gillis, the player agent who once utilized Frost as a birddog, has distanced himself from Frost, almost denying there was ever any kind of professional relationship.
DAUGHTER MARRIED FROST
And one of the families associated with Frost, a well-known hockey name, has watched as their teenage daughter inexplicably left home, moved in and eventually married Frost. "I've asked my daughter to come home," the mother said, pleading that her identity be protected. "My daughter is an idiot. She will not listen. I said to her 'This is the FBI we're talking about here. Now's your chance. Get away from him and come home.'
"I don't know what control he has over her. But he has always had this control."
A control unexplained. A control witnessed by many who have watched with trepidation a control they couldn't understand.
"Success breeds jealousy," David Frost told me in 1999. "I kind of like the controversy as long as I know what I'm doing is best for the player.
"I don't care who I rub the wrong way. I'm not about to change. Not for anybody."
If you've read this far, thank you, but I won't post the 1999 award winning article in its entirety, but here is a link to it. http://www.sunmedia.ca/DunlopAwards/frost.html
I experienced something very similar last year to the investigation by Steve Simmons. As a trustee, we had to deal with a football coach who acted inappropriately and put his players, in the board's opinion, at risk. This football coach, who has a track record of some questionable actions and poor judgement, is a winner wherever he has been, and when it came time to decide to disipline him or not, I was swamped with the parents of kids who were more worried that banning the coach from a playoff game was going to wreck the scholarships that were coming their way than the coach's actions which put the kids in harm's way in the first place.
Who to believe in the above story? In the end, if the stories of David Frost are true, its tragic that he won't be the one punished.
My hope is that alot of the parents out there who hope for that multi-million dollar sports contract, (no matter what sport) or put their 6 year old through beauty pagents, will read this and wake up.
My cynic self knows the answer.
Steve