Ex-Red Wing McCarty gets court order vs. former friends
Retired Red Wings forward Darren McCarty and his wife, Sheryl, have obtained personal protection orders against four former friends in Detroit, according to a Detroit News report, citing court records.
The paper reported Wednesday that the 15-year-veteran has claimed harassment by three women and one man, who are trying to lure McCarty back into a partying lifestyle.
McCarty, who works for the Detroit Red Wings Alumni Association, alleges that the former friends -- Tonya Juhl, 37; Kimberley Mitchell, 38; Anne Marie Samulski, 22; and Louis Barbato, 40 -- have tried to get them fired, sent threatening text messages and phone calls, and posted hateful messages on websites about them. The harassment has included death threats.
The McCartys were granted the orders last month.
"All we want is to be left alone," McCarty told the paper. "I ignored some of the things they were doing and was willing to let it go, until they started threatening my wife and me. Death threats. They don't like me because I'm not running around with them anymore, and they don't like her because we got married and just want to get on with our lives."
Mitchell denied the claims to the Free Press, but said she couldn't comment further because of the orders.
"I can't say anything because of the personal protection order," she told the paper. "What they say is totally false, and I have a lot more to say, but I don't want to go to jail."
McCarty spent 13 of his 15 seasons with the Red Wings. He appeared in 758 career games, scoring 127 goals and totaling 1,477 penalty minutes. His goal in the 1997 Stanley Cup finals against the Philadelphia Flyers ended Detroit's 42-year title drought.
