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 Editorials | Issues | April 2007 
Legal Woes Continue to Dog Bounty Hunter
 Nick Lewis - The Calgary Herald
| | Duane 'Dog' Chapman and his wife Beth Smith are bounty hunters who track fugitives on the A&E reality TV show Dog the Bounty Hunter. (Lucy Pemoni/AP) |
Every dog has his day, and if justice is met, Dog the Bounty Hunter will soon have his.
There is still hope that Duane (Dog) Chapman, the 53-year-old American bounty hunter made famous by a reality show on A&E, will not have to face extradition charges to Mexico in the infamous Andrew Luster case.
"An appellate court in Mexico has finally heard our story," a soft-spoken Chapman said from New York en route to Calgary for a speaking engagement this week. "And they are deciding whether to drop it in their home country. So we're hoping it will be dropped, just like that. And if it isn't, then we still have a shot at the American courts."
For a reality TV star, even one as accustomed to drama as Chapman, this is some harsh reality.
Since the debut of his series in 2004, he's become a kind of cult hero thanks to his gruff exterior and obvious love of his family. The series follows his bounty hunting crew, including larger-than-life wife Beth Smith, as they track down fugitives from the law to collect bonds.
Despite his TV fame, it's his legal woes in Mexico that have grabbed the most attention. The charges stem from Chapman's June 2003 capture of Luster, a convicted rapist and heir to the Max Factor fortune.
After an international manhunt that lasted 166 days, Chapman captured Luster in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The capture led to Chapman's arrest by Mexican authorities. Chapman and two associates, his son Leland and Tim Chapman (no relation), were charged with "deprivation of liberty" in a country where bounty hunting is illegal.
After posting bail they left Mexico, but in September 2006, they were arrested in Honolulu on the request of Mexican authorities and held overnight at a Federal Detention Center before being released on bail, $300,000 for Duane Chapman and $100,000 each for the other two.
Since then, there had been fears the three would face a court in Mexico, where, if convicted, they could serve up to four years in jail.
Meanwhile, Luster has already been sentenced to a 124-year-prison term in California, and Chapman has yet to claim the bond money for his capture.
Still, Chapman says arresting Luster was right thing to do.
"Andrew Luster was convicted of 86 counts of rape, and in my business, when that happens, that's like being a fireman and the house across the street is on fire," he says. "It was right up our alley. And that kind of horrendous thing, someone has to do it, and we know we're that someone."
"We hunted him for 166 days, and after the first five days it became very personal. Once we got into the horrendous things he did, what the victims told us was sickening, and we knew we had to capture this guy. Because every night he was free was another night he could be doing more of it. During those 166 days he was free, there could have been another 100 victims."
There's something irresistibly likable about Chapman in his soft manner of speaking, his politeness and his rags-to-riches story.
As a young man, he was a member of a biker gang and was arrested dozens of times. He spent time in prison for a murder conviction -- for which he maintains his innocence -- before beginning his life as a bounty hunter and family man.
It's that story of reformation that is behind much of his appeal.
Even now, he refuses to give up on Luster's chances for reform. While the bounty hunter is proud of having a high conversion rate of his more than 7,000 captured fugitives -- 40 per cent of them turn their lives around and get jobs, he says -- he'd rather not comment on whether there's any hope for Luster.
"Brother, I don't know," he says, sighing. "I've never chased anyone like that in my life. I hope there's hope for him, because he will end up dying in jail. And I don't know how I feel about that."
As of now, Chapman is legally allowed to leave the U.S. and enter Canada for two speaking engagements. He says the speaking engagements are an attempt to set the record straight on his legal woes and talk about his own life story, which has indisputable moments of inspiration.
He also wants to thank his Canadian fans. He says 50 per cent of visitors to his Honolulu-based business, Da Kine Bail Bonds, are Canadian. Some of them have contributed to a legal fund, should Chapman have to take his case to court, and others have signed a petition on his official site asking the Mexican government to desist in their extradition attempts.
In the meantime, Chapman is holding off on the release of his biography, entitled You Can Run But You Can't Hide, until August. The book will cover his childhood, his early run-ins with the law as a member of a biker gang and continue all the way up to the Luster case.
Chapman says he hopes that as other felons learn about his life and about how he turned it around, they'll find inspiration to do it themselves.
"I've always had this good seed inside me and I don't think the bad one ever grew," he says.
"I saw that incarceration and that way of life was not for me. There was no bucket of gold at the end of the criminal rainbow, there was only life in an eight-by-six-foot cell. And I was smart enough to see the signs and turn the other way."
| • R E A D E R S ' C O M M E N T S •
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What is Mexico thinking? The Dog and his family are the good men! What would you ever gain by arresting Duane, his son, and his brother - except more bad publicity. Please reconsider what you are doing. The Bounty Hunter took a preditor off your streets... someone who was raping and demeaning women... our women and your women. Who is the bad guy here?
- Gail L. |
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