ST. LOUIS - Blues forward Mike Danton will plead innocent to federal charges that he tried to hire a hit man to kill an acquaintance, his lawyer said Friday.
"The complaint tells a very bizarre, incomprehensible story that's inconsistent with what all of Mike Danton's teammates and those close to him know about him," attorney Bob Haar said. "We will be entering a plea of not guilty at the time of the arraignment."
It is uncertain when the arraignment will happen. Danton, arrested in San Jose, Calif., a day after the Sharks beat the Blues to eliminate them from the playoffs, remains in federal custody.
Haar said the U.S. Marshal's Service, partly for security reasons, does not disclose when a suspect will be moved.
"All we have gotten is very rough predictions from a couple of days to a couple of weeks," Haar said. "Unfortunately, it's not a process we have any influence over."
Thursday, a federal prosecutor said Danton was being brought back to Illinois to face the charges. Danton and an alleged accomplice, 19-year-old Katie Wolfmeyer, of the St. Louis suburb Florissant, were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiring to arrange a murder for hire and using a telephone across state lines to arrange it. Wolfmeyer was freed Monday to the custody of her parents on $100,000 bond.
Federal authorities said that Danton, with Wolfmeyer's help, tried to hire a hit man for $10,000 to murder an unidentified acquaintance at Danton's suburban St. Louis apartment.
Wolfmeyer was accused of contacting the would-be hit man, who alerted the FBI.
Ronald Tenpas, the U.S. Attorney for Illinois' southern district, asserted that Wolfmeyer, who had a "personal relationship" with Danton, found someone to do the killing and led the man to Danton's apartment building.
Tenpas and other authorities refuse to identify the person Danton is accused of wanting dead.
AVALANCHE: Left wing Alex Tanguay practiced Friday and expects to play against the Sharks today in Game 2 after missing the Avalanche's past two playoff games with a knee injury.
