Agent reportedly denies Danton case involves gay relationship
NEW YORK - St. Louis Blues forward Mike Danton remained in a California jail on Saturday, facing charges in a murder-for-hire plot as speculation raged that he wanted to silence a friend who threatened to publicly expose him as a homosexual.
Danton's agent, however, said his client has been suffering from depression and other mental health problems, and denied the arrest was related to a fear of being outed as a gay man.
"This has nothing to do with a gay lover or his relationship with any female," Dave Frost, Danton's agent, told the New York Daily News. "We're going to get him some help, some treatment. He's had some issues from his younger years that he needs to deal with."
Danton, 23, was arrested at 8 a.m. Friday at the airport in San Jose by police and agents from San Francisco's FBI division, hours after the Blues were knocked out of the playoffs by the Sharks on Thursday night. He was taken to the Santa Clara County Jail, where he awaits extradition to St. Louis, possibly early this week.
Danton has a turbulent background and has been estranged from his family, changing his name from Mike Jefferson to Danton in 2002. "When somebody changes his name, that's pretty drastic," Frost said.
Updated On: 4/20/04 at 09:59 AM
