NAPANEE — David Frost is a creep, a bully, a repugnant human being. But there's no law against this.
There is a law against sexual exploitation. And this morning, Frost was acquitted on four charges of that.
The notorious former hockey coach and agent — once the target of a bizarre murder-for-hire plot arranged by his own NHL client — walked out of court here an innocent man: Not guilty of perverting the trust of teenage boys as a person of authority in their lives, not guilty of inappropriately touching their bodies, not guilty of sordid and coerced three-way sex involving the youths and their girlfriends.
Ontario Court Justice Geoffrey Griffin did not believe the evidence of two of those girlfriends, testifying more than a decade after the Season of Frost, in nearby Deseronto.
Or, more accurately put, Griffin disbelieved the women more than he disbelieved the denials of two-on-one sex with their coach by a one-two combo of Frost's ex-player proteges.
The 41-year-old Frost may have been "loud, vulgar, offensive, very aggressive . . . abusive and intimidating" in his coaching style, said Griffin. "But I am not prepared to conclude the level of control was as extreme and pervasive as the Crown would have me believe."
Concluding that the prosecution had not proven Frost guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, Griffin acquitted the defendant on all charges.
Frost, chewing gum, stood but made no comment as the judge left the room.
A female spectator, the sister of one of the women who had testified for the prosecution, yelled, "Scumball!" at Frost. "That's for my sister."
Frost turned to the woman and said," Go f--- yourself."
The Crown found itself in the awkward position of not only prosecuting the named defendant, Frost - who never took the stand - but needing to crush the credibility of the two "complainants" at the heart of their case.
Now both 28, these former hockey players took the stand - in one of those courtroom gasp moments, and this trial had many - as witnesses for the defence, flatly denying that any sexual exploitation had ever occurred and no three-way sex at all with their ex-coach and mentor.
In coming to the testimonial rescue of a man they once feared and revered, the one-time junior stars methodically contradicted the evidence of friends, lovers, teammates and even their own previously sworn statements to police.
The four sexual exploitation charges related to alleged incidents dating back to the late 1990s, when Frost coached - actually, usurped the coaching job from the man who formally held that title - a junior hockey team in Deseronto, a dot of a town about 215 kilometres east of Toronto.
Teenage girls, some at least, were clearly giddy over the young stud players arriving in their dull hamlet and eagerly pursued them as boyfriends.
Two of these girls, now women in their late 20s, took the stand here last month to testify they'd been coerced into having threesomes with their boyfriends and Frost.
Their lovers were among five players Frost had brought to the newly created Quinte Hawks from CityplaceBrampton, an unusually close group of youths, four of whom lived with their coach at a local motel during the season.
Under oath, the women said they agreed - reluctantly - to two-on-one sex, with Frost as a participant, at the urging of those boyfriends. Both maintained Frost controlled their relationships with the players, even to the extent of determining when sex would be permitted.
One of them, Jennifer, who had a serious six-year relationship with a player - at least, she thought it was serious and might lead to marriage - testified that submitting to threesomes with Frost over that entire period was a requirement for sustaining the affair, though her aversion to Frost in their bed led to endless arguments.
But that player heatedly disputed any sex with Frost had taken place.
There had been, he readily acknowledged, two-on-one sex, but only involving same-age teammates, with Jennifer more than a willing party.
"She was with it, actively enjoyed it and at times initiated it," the player told court.
These consensual threesomes, the player testified, included two specific teammates, one of whom was Mike Danton - then still using his family surname of Jefferson - the former St. Louis Blues player currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in the U.S. over a thwarted murder-for-hire plot to kill Frost, his then-agent.
The player agreed he'd been involved with Jennifer for six years and for a time the couple had lived together, while he was in the minors and lonely. But he didn't want the girl with him when he was called up to the NHL for what turned out to be an abbreviated journeyman big league career.
He also admitted not speaking to his parents for a year, so furious had he been over their "betrayal" in another police investigation against Frost, involving the little brother of a teammate, which did not result in criminal charges.
Jennifer further told court that she'd had sex with another player at Frost's hockey camp, at the coach's insistence. That player, said Jennifer, at first objected but obeyed, apologizing to her beforehand. Jennifer also claimed she was browbeaten by Frost into having sex with a player's pubescent brother.
Under cross-examination, Jennifer told court she'd never noticed a peculiar detail of Frost's anatomy - a plum-sized blood sac that resembled a third testicle - despite all the three-way sex she'd described.
The judge, but not the public, was shown video of Jennifer flagrantly exposing her vagina to the camera while at a party.
The other key female witness, Kristy, testified she was a virgin when she first had sex with her Quinte Hawk boyfriend on New Year's Eve, 1997. She recalled two alleged incidents of three-way sex with Frost. This initially happened a few weeks after Frost came into the couple's bedroom and reportedly asked his player if they'd tried the "new positions" earlier discussed.
This player said threesomes occurred only later that summer, never with Frost. He also claimed to have participated in group sex with one female and up to five or sex males, suggesting this was common for hockey players, "a bonding experience."
Frost's lawyer, Marie Henein, told court these sexual episodes had never occurred, suggesting the women had colluded in a plot after the Crown dropped charges of sexual exploitation against them.
Names of the women who testified against Frost were not shielded from publication, though the judge stated he had "enormous sympathy'' for the witnesses. The females were not considered "victims" because the sex was consensual, thus there was no protection of anonymity normally afforded sexual assault complainants.
Technically, the "complainants" were the players, alleged by the prosecution to have been under thrall to and sexually exploited by Frost. But the players never actually complained to authorities and, driving a stake into the Crown's case, exculpated Frost of all allegations against him when they surprisingly took the stand.
A publication ban still forbids identification of the players because they were under-age when the incidents alleged occurred.
The trial heard character evidence against Frost, widening the scope of testimony, after the judge ruled his unorthodox coaching style was a legitimate issue for the prosecution to examine. The Crown's job was to prove that Frost was in a position of trust or authority or in a relationship of dependency with his players - all of which stemmed from his extraordinary control over their hockey careers.
Henein argued from the outset that Frost's treatment of players, as coach, was not relevant to the charges and unconnected to determining whether sexual exploitation had occurred.
Three players and a trainer told court they'd witnessed incidents of shocking mistreatment, with Frost swearing at players, hitting them with hockey sticks, dumping garbage over them, punching one boy in the face and throwing a water bottle at another.
In one of the most troubling episodes of violence - as former player Jason Flick told court - was when, during the 1996-97 season, Frost grabbed Danton by his jersey and punched him in the face at least once, maybe twice, causing Danton's head to hit the dressing room wall. Flick said Danton did not respond at all.
"That was the strange thing, he didn't block the punches or say stop or anything. He just sort of took the punches in the face and that was it.''
None of Danton's teammates did anything either, Flick said, because they were so intimidated by Frost and feared getting the same treatment.
Frost has since been decertified as coach and agent.
“He’s really relieved,” Henein said of the verdict. “This has been going on for four years. He has a lovely wife, lovely children, and everything has been very difficult, even just going out and about in town and sending their children to a regular school.”
“I can’t believe the judge can sleep tonight,” said Steve Jefferson, Mike Danton’s father.
