Danton not allowed transfer to prison in Canada

ST. LOUIS -- Former St. Louis Blues player Mike Danton claims he has been a "perfect" prisoner and should be allowed to transfer to his native Canada to serve out a prison sentence for a failed attempt to have his agent killed.

In a two-page letter released to the news media Wednesday, Danton questioned a decision issued by the Justice Department last month to keep him in the United States. Authorities said Danton's crime was too severe, and that giving him a transfer would "not serve the ends of justice."

Danton, 25, was sentenced in 2004 to 7 1/2 years after pleading guilty to murder conspiracy charges. He has not said who the target of the plot was, but prosecutors say he tried to have his agent, David Frost, killed. The FBI was told of the plot and Frost was not injured.

Danton, who was with the Blues for only one season, has said he wanted to be sent to Canada to get surgery for a shoulder injury and therapy for what his sentencing request called his "grave mental disorders."

The Justice Department unit that evaluates such transfers said Danton has to wait two years to reapply, and can improve his chance by being a model prisoner.

"My prison record, as they call it, has been perfect," Danton wrote in the letter from the low-security prison in Fort Dix, N.J., where he is imprisoned. "I have made as much progress as I could with my psychologist regarding my psychological disorders."

Danton said he's tutoring other inmates and studying French and computer courses. He also said in the letter that he wanted to pursue a "loving, productive family environment" in Canada, although Danton is estranged from his mother and father.

His attorney, Howard O. Kieffer said Wednesday: "People have taken the word 'family' too literally. It doesn't mean his father. It doesn't necessarily mean Frost. The point is, he's got a community there."

Danton sued the U.S. government last November, saying he should be transferred to Canada, in part because "similarly situated applicants have been approved for removal to their home nations."