Back in 2003 Mr. Duane Chapman, known as Dog, the premier American bounty hunter, and his colleagues were charged by Mexican authorities with “deprivation of liberty” and held in jail in Puerto Vallarta before they made bail and slipped out of the country.
All this on charges stemming from his capture in Mexico of Andrew Luster, the Max Factor heir who was eventually convicted of raping three women.
The Luster arrest, which catapulted Mr. Chapman to a new level of celebrity and eventually resulted in A&E signing him for the series, led to a lasting grudge on the part of Mexican authorities, who demanded that the United States extradite the bounty hunter.
Now, with less than a month before the warrant would have expired and in the midst of filming the fourth season of his enormously successful reality series, "Dog the Bounty Hunter", Mr. Chapman was the one being brought to justice.
Yesterday the Chapman family suggested that some horse trading was under way, pointing out that Francisco Rafael Arellano Félix, part of a Mexican drug cartel, was handed over to United States authorities.
Said Lucas Platt, the supervising producer of the show . .
“Going after Andrew Luster was a risky decision, but he thought it was the right thing to do. Now it has taken an unfortunate turn.”The turn won’t hurt ratings. A&E plans a special for tomorrow night, and the stories about his travails will only add to the legend. The man who brought vengeance to thousands of bail jumpers found himself on the wrong end of justice.
“Dog the Bounty Hunter” is A&E’s most-watched show.
As Dog himself sees it . .
“I believe in what I do, I am good at what I do, and I want to be able to say that Jesus played a role in it. Never, ever, has anyone ever escaped.”From an article appearing in the New York Times September 18, 2006 by David Carr (with James C. McKinley Jr. reporting from Mexico).
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