David Frost Finally Arrested

So I'm a pretty avid reader of Deadspin, which is a great sports news-ish site. The comments section for their posts are usually hilarious for at least the first 15 responses or so until it devolves into quoting the same small group of movies over and over. But it is an American sports site, meaning hockey coverage is light at best, and thus, rarely serves as inspiration for one of my posts.

But two weeks ago, they reported that unfortunately, supercreep David Frost had resurfaced at a juice bar in Kingston, Ontario, rather than a more desrving place, like the bottom of Lake Erie, or under a semi-truck.

And today, Frost was finally charged with 12 counts of sexual exploitation and one count of assualt for incidents that took place between 1995 and 2001 in eastern Ontario.

Most people may remember Frost as the guy Mike Danton tried to have murdered. It always amazed me that Danton has been in prison all these years while Frost has been allowed to stay involved in amateur hockey. Thanfully Frost has finally been picked up, but I can't believe Frost has been allowed to stay in hockey this long without any serious consequence while basically everyone knew something was seriously wrong. I guess that's Canada for you.

Chris Heisenberg linked to an article about Frost last April that describes young players spending inordinate amounts of time in Frost's hotel room while Frost was with the Quinte Hawks.

Heisenberg followed up that story two weeks later by quoting Paul Shaheen, when Shaheen wrote in his ROI newsletter about how the Pembroke Lumber Kings, where Frost found refuge as an unofficial advisor, were suffering from similar problems to the problems the Quinte Hawks had while Frost was there. Though sadly, stories of "rampant drinking, partying, and wild initiation rights" could probably be told about a lot of junior hockey teams. Hopefully Pembroke's "wild initiation rights" were better than the "initiation" Frost gave to Mike Danton's younger brother Tom Jefferson, which included having a loaded rifle pointed at Jefferson and being duct-taped naked to a bed.(Again, they had pictures of this in June 2001, and Frost is just getting arrested today.)

Frost's connection to Pembroke, brings us to college hockey, as Pembroke is where St. Cloud State recruit Ryan Lasch played last year. St. Cloud writer Kevin Allenspach explored the story and Lasch's connection. Lasch doesn't seem to have much of a direct connection to Frost, but he does have a very direct connection to Larry Barron, who runs a hockey school in California and set Lasch up with a tryout in Pembroke. Barron was a member of the Quinte Hawks teams, along with Mike Danton, during the time Frost's alledged sexual exploitations occurred.

Ultimately, the situation has worked out well for Lasch, who had nowhere to play out in California, and found somewhere to showcase his talents and earn a Division I scholarship. It's still disturbing to see a kid coming from a team that had so many shady characters involved in their operation. That's not to imply something is wrong with Lasch, because that's not the point I'm trying to make at all. I think he'll go on to a fine career at St. Cloud. It's more a reminder that this stuff happens closer to home than one might think, and how dangerous the world of junior hockey can be at times.