Charges Dropped against Duane Dog Chapman

According to PR Newswire and his A&E website, Duane "Dog" Chapman has had his Mexican legal troubles put to rest. The Mexican government has dropped all charges versus Dog, his son, Leland, and his brother Tim. The prosecution was forced to drop the charges by order of the judge because the statute of limitations expired against his alleged illegal deprivation of liberty of serial rapist Andrew Luster. If an appeal is to be filed, it must be done so by August 8.

Back on June 8, 2003, Dog and his fellow bounty hunters/relatives traveled to Mexico in hopes to capture Luster, who had jumped his $1 million bail. Dug purportedly claimed that he worked with FBI agents as well as Mexican police and thought he was well within the law once he found Luster and attempted to transport him back to the United States. Dog, Leland and Tim were stopped at a roadblock and taken into custody, while Mexican authorities turned Luster over to United States officials Luster was eventually sentenced to 124 years in prison.

Deprivation of liberty is not the same as kidnapping and is considered a misdemeanor in Mexico. According to Mexican law and a joint treaty signed between the United States and Mexico, authorities from the US are allowed to enter Mexico in order to capture fugitives so long as a Mexican authority is present during the capture. Dog claims in his new book that the man who was with him when he caught Luster at a Taco stand showed proof that he was with the Mexican police; however, he was in a separate car when Chapman was transporting Luster to a Mexican jail and got sidetracked two blocks before arriving at the police station.

The Chapmans had posted bail but were unaware that they had to return to Puerto Vallarta, the place of their arrest, to attend a hearing in relation to those charges.

Soon after he returned to the United States, Chapman and his crew had moved to Hawaii and eventually landed a television deal with A&E to film his bounty hunter company at work. In 2006, after two seasons on the air and numerous public appearances, the Mexican government and U.S. Marshals arrested Dog Chapman, his son and his brother to face charges. Dog was eventually allowed to return home.

Chapman will appear on Larry King Live this Friday at 9pm Eastern to discuss his upcoming book, his TV show and the circumstances surrounding the Andrew Luster case. Dog can now continue to run his bounty hunter company; to date they have caught over 7,000 bail jumpers.

SOURCE:

PR newswire

URL:

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/08-02-2007/0004638567&EDATE=