Moody Blue

The strangest story in sports got stranger last week when Mike Danton—the Blues center who federal prosecutors say tried to hire a hit man to kill his agent and longtime mentor, David Frost—made his first public comments since his arrest on April 16. On Friday, Danton called a St. Louis Post-Dispatch hockey writer, Derrick Goold, from the Clinton County Jail, where he is being held without bail while awaiting a July 20 trial, and read a statement. In it the 23-year-old thanked the man he is accused of wanting to kill. ( Danton has pleaded not guilty to the murder-for-hire charges.) Then Danton lashed out at his Brampton , Ont. , family, the Jeffersons, from whom he tried to distance himself in 2002 by changing his name. "It is important to scratch the surface and share a part of my life that I have hidden for so long," Danton said. He claimed he was the victim of "constant physical and emotional abuse" as a child and "was neglected of [sic] many daily necessities, as well as the abandonment of love, care and direction." He described squalid living conditions in the Jefferson home, including a lack of toilet paper.

Danton 's father, Stephen Jefferson, called the accusations "bulls—, another scheme by Dave Frost to get the heat off him." Jefferson maintains that Frost has had an unhealthy hold on his son and other young hockey players. SI has learned that three years ago, the Ontario Provincial Police investigated a complaint that Frost sexually assaulted a 13-year-old boy at his cabin. Last week a law enforcement source told SI that evidence, including photographs, has been gathered, though no charges have been brought. Frost, who set up the call between Danton and Goold, did not return several calls from SI.

Prosecutors considered asking the judge to ban further contact between Frost and Danton but didn't, leaving the door open for Danton to continue to be advised by the man he allegedly conspired to kill.