PONTIAC, Mich., June 6 (UPI) -- Former Detroit Red Wings star Darren McCarty and his wife have protection orders against four former friends who allegedly harassed them.
McCarty, 40, and his wife, Sheryl, 37, were granted the orders by an Oakland County Circuit Court judge last month, The Detroit News reported.
McCarty and his wife, whom he married this year, said the three women and a man had threatened violence against them, tried to get them fired from their jobs and posted malicious comments on Web sites.
Oakland County Circuit Judge Mary Ellen Brennan granted the protection orders against Tonya Juhl, 37, and Kimberley Mitchell, 38, both of Clawson; Anne Marie Samulski, 22, of Royal Oak; and Louis Barbato, 40, of Shelby Township.
The orders, which remain in force for a year, forbid the four ex-friends from approaching, following or contacting the McCartys or going to their home or workplaces.
In an interview, McCarty said: "They don't like me because I'm not running around with them anymore, and they don't like [his wife] because we got married and just want to get on with our lives."
The couple said in court papers the four began targeting McCarty, who went through alcohol rehab in the 1990s, and his wife after failing to lure him back into a life of partying.
McCarty, who spent 13 seasons with the Red Wings, now works for Detroit Red Wings Alumni Association. His wife is a nurse.
Mitchell denied the McCartys' claims as "totally false" but would not elaborate.
Court records say Juhl and Samulski are waitresses who dated McCarty -- apparently unknown to each other -- off and on from December 2009 to March 2010.
"We don't know what [the McCartys] are attempting to accomplish. There seems to be some vindictive ulterior motive to this because my client and another are former girlfriends of his," said Jeffrey Lance Abood, an attorney for Juhl. "I don't know if Tonya even knows Sheryl."
The News said Samulski and Barbato could not be reached for comment.
