It's been a difficult time for
Duane "Dog" Chapman, whose show
Dog the Bounty Hunter has been taken off the air after he used a racial slur that made him a target for much public scrutiny. But the future is looking a bit brighter for the bail bondsman nowadays as he is no longer a wanted man in Mexico.
"We are ecstatic that this nightmare is finally over, and happy to see the Mexican justice system works," Chapman and his wife,
Beth, said in a statement. "We can all now move forward."
In 2003, Chapman, whose bounty hunting business is the subject of the TV show
Dog the Bounty Hunter, made the news with his hunt and capture of Max Factor cosmetic heir Andrew Luster, who at the time was in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Luster had fled the United States in the middle of his trial for drugging and raping a number of women, and was convicted in absentia on 86 counts including multiple rape charges connected to assaults in 1996, 1997 and 2000.
Because bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico, prosecutors in that country charged Duane and his companions with detaining Luster and asked U.S. authorities to arrest him, along with his son
Leland Chapman and associate
Tim Chapman, and send them to Mexico.
Chapman has lived with the threat of extradition to Mexico over his head for some time. But now, a Mexican court has dropped all his charges.
"He's a free man," Chapman's San Francisco-based attorney, James A. Quadra, said in a telephone interview late Tuesday. "They can't reinstate any criminal charges and as a result of that, there's no basis for them to then seek extradition."
"The three of them — Duane, Leland and Tim — have always been absolutely certain they did the right thing and proud of what they accomplished," Quadra added.
Meanwhile, there is no word yet on when
Dog the Bounty Hunter will return on air.
-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Associated Press
(Image courtesy of People)