Danton's attorney seeks change of venue

ST. LOUIS -- An attorney for St. Louis Blues player Mike Danton argued for a change of venue in his client's murder-for-hire case Monday, saying it "has been subject to an extraordinary amount of pretrial publicity."

Attorney Robert Haar acknowledged its unusual for such requests to be granted in federal trials such as this one, which was scheduled Monday for September.

"It's relatively rare," he said after the hearing in federal court in East St. Louis, Ill. "But this is a relatively rare case."

He said he had no expectations, but that given all the publicity surrounding the case, it was incumbent upon him to try.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Clark argued that regardless of the publicity, the case still could be tried fairly in the U.S. Southern District of Illinois.