Nick Kypreos shares his thoughts on the exclusive interview with Mike Danton.
Let’s make two things perfectly clear:
1. No one paid Mike Danton to speak to me.
2. David Frost didn’t put me up to doing this interview, as Steve Jefferson insinuated in a phone conversation we had prior to the interview going to air.
When I sat down with Mike Danton, I had no preconceived notions of what I was going to get out of him. Five and a half years ago, from what I could gather from TV clips or newspaper stories, Danton appeared a young, arrogant kid who kept everything bottled up to himself.
In the early years of his career with the New Jersey Devils he went way beyond your typical cocky top prospect. In a dispute with the Devils GM over a minor-league assignment, Danton was quoted as saying: "I'm not drinking Lou Lamoriello’s Kool-Aid anymore." Not too many players talk that way about their GMs.
Instead, what I saw during our interview was an articulate, thoughtful guy, who expressed exactly what he wanted to say. Unfortunately, it wasn’t any more or any less than what he was prepared to say.
Do I think there is more to this story that he could have shared? Yes I do.
Could I have pushed Danton harder on details surrounding his story on his biological father being the target and not David Frost? And could I have pushed harder on issues on how bad the public perceives his agent, David Frost? Yes, I could have.
But I also could have risked the interview ending at the drop of a hat, with Danton getting up and leaving with so many story lines still untold. I didn’t want that to happen.
What I believe is that Danton believes that it wasn’t David Frost he was trying to kill. And that’s an important distinction.
And while many people think it was Frost he wanted killed, the evidence provided by the U.S. government at Danton’s trial could not prove that it was Frost. If the FBI had concrete evidence that Frost was his intended target, the charge wouldn’t have just stopped at conspiracy to commit interstate murder for hire, it would have been attempted murder.
Basically, all the U.S. prosecutors had on Danton was that he tried to hire a hitman and that's it. And for that he spent nearly six years in jail. The FBI couldn't prove Frost was the target anymore than you or I could.
The attempted murder charge, which could have carried a sentence of 20 years, wasn’t levied. How can you charge murder without proof of an intended victim?
Even the story that Danton showed a photo of Frost to the "hitman" was never brought into evidence because the prosecutors couldn’t prove it.
Mike Danton told me that, at the age of 23, he was assessed at being between the age of eight and 14 mentally, which helps explain why there was no rhyme or reason for what the hell he did back then. He was a confused, sick person that desperately needed some help.
Today, I believe he did get help – unfortunately he had to go to jail to get it – and he admirably chooses not to pin his life problems on David Frost, Steve Jefferson or even the FBI. He says he made some terrible decisions that he’s paid the fiddler for, and that kind of accountability is at least a good place to start in anyone getting a second chance. He certainly showed enough for doctors to recommend that he be granted early parole.
I say give him that second chance and if he screws up just once, then throw him to the curb. But until then, let’s at least give him the opportunity to make good.