On September 14, 2006, Duane Chapman, also known as “Dog” the Bounty Hunter, was arrested by federal agents in Hawaii on charges of stealing from a bounty hunter in Mexico three years earlier. According to Mexican law, Canis and his team captured the law and deported Andrew Luster, who was convicted of kidnapping Vide on the run by the American police.
This arrest seemed to put some Americans in a moral dilemma when it came to questions of justice vs. Although felony kidnapping is a serious crime, Canis and his team (including his wife, Beth, two children and a longtime business partner) hunt down the bad guys and bring them to justice. Will justice find him guilty and forever cement Duane Chapman as an international criminal, or will he be found innocent and continue to catch criminals? Let’s take a look at the situation and see if it falls before the stake goes down.
Duane: Hero
For those of you who watch the show, The Dog: Bounty Hunter on A&E;, you know that The Dog bails on dancers of all kinds. He caught people who appeared in the court” and persisted in numerous traffic violations; he also caught drug dealers, wife stalkers, pedophiles, and kidnappers .The Hawaii-based company Da Kine Bail has caught more than 6,000 fugitives in the last year. This is a good service because no one has enough money to pay and put out more cops on the road The bounty hunter / bail bondsman business regularly catches 30,000 to 40,000 criminals a year.
Not only Canis (who called himself “God” based on the latter, master of the criminal mind, regular viewers of his show, see him constantly counseling and advising each fugitive. Chapman spends a lot of time with his criminals, telling his sons before they get caught, or trying to talk the judge into reducing his prison time, to help get his life in order.
Dog, 53 years old, often spends time with his large family. His two eldest sons, Duane, Ir., were employed in his company. and Leland. Beth, his “new” bride, was there for most of his career. Although they got married in May, both partners have been in-laws for 16 years. Dog also has 10 other children in 4 marriages. His eldest daughter Barbara died tragically the night before her wedding.
Duane: The Criminal
Life at Canis was not always fame and fortune. Raised in an abusive home, Duane Chapman often acted out his family’s frustrations. While in Texas, Duane was arrested eighteen times for robbery. He also did five years of hard labor in Texas for being involved in gangland murder. He was a member of a motorcycle group called the Devil’s Disciples. One gang killed another man and The dog was charged as an accessory to the degree of murder. “Even though I didn’t commit a crime I was here,” Chapman said, “I felt like every brick in the wall… stood for something I did wrong and I wasn’t caught.”
From that point he turned his life around, but this recent arrest puts him in the same boat as some of them. He was arrested for years. In 2003, Duane and two of his company’s partners ventured into Mexico after being wanted criminally. Andreas Luster, the heir of the Max Factor Company, was accused of video kidnapping, convicted in absentia of kidnapping three women and sentenced to 124 years in prison He was convicted, but he escaped… A dog followed his tracks to Puerto Vallarta and eventually brought him back to the border. But he was caught illegally in Mexico and the Dog bounty-hunting. The Mexican government first wanted Luster handed over to them, but Canis refused. He posted bail in 2003 but never returned to Mexico for legal reasons.
Although Duane “The Dog” Chapman will have the support of many fans and bounty hunters alike, he cannot get the help of the American government when US marshals are the ones who have arrested him for extradition to Mexico. Beth Chapman said, “…if Duane has to go back to Mexico to clean up some mistake, we’ll do it.” Will the United States support the side of international justice, or will they side with a man who used a second chance at life to right past wrongs?
