Dog The Bounty Hunter on DVD

Dog the Bounty Hunter is a reality television show, featuring Duane "Dog" Chapman's operations at his job, Da Kine Bail Bonds in Honolulu, Hawaii. Dog is joined by his wife and business partner, Beth Smith Chapman, his sons Leland, Duane Lee, associate Tim Chapman and his daughter Lyssa Chapman. Besides Hawaii, episodes have been filmed in Dog Chapman's home state of Colorado and the city of San Francisco. The program was suspended indefinitely by A&E after Dog Chapman was recorded uttering racial slurs. The first Dog the Bounty Hunter DVD was released on January 25, 2005 which is entitled "The Best of Season", featuring all the highlights in the first season.

Show Details

The show is aired on A&E Networks in USA and on Virgin 1 and Bravo in the UK.

While the program mostly follows Chapman and his team in pursuits against actual criminals who violated the conditions of their bail, it also shows his life as a husband, as a father to some of his twelve children, and as an ex-convict. Chapman and Smith were married on May 20, 2006. Dog's compassionate side is frequently on display, as he looks for ways to coach his catches back to the right path.

The program spun off from their appearance in the show A&E Network's Take This Job, a program about people with unusual occupations. Both shows are produced for A&E by Hybrid Films, a New York-based production company. The concept of the program is to follow a family of bounty hunters as they capture fugitives.

The family also runs a bail bond business, Da Kine Bail Bonds, and has locations in Oahu, in Kona on the Big Island and also on the mainland in Denver, Colorado. The office on the Big Island is owned and run by Duane's son, Leland Chapman. The Oahu office is located at 1381 Queen Emma St. in Honolulu.

Chapman had a daughter named Barbara Katie who was killed in a car accident the day Duane and Beth married. Despite the death, the wedding ceremony commenced and the special episode was aired August 2006.

At a legislative hearing in Honolulu, where he appeared to oppose a bill under consideration that would effectively remove his ability to capture fugitives, he claimed to have captured 7000 fugitives.

The arrest and extradition in 2006

At approximately 6:00 am Hawaiian time on September 14, 2006, Duane Chapman, his son Leland and his associate Tim Chapman were arrested by US Marshals at the request of the Mexican government, on charges of bounty hunting, which is illegal in Mexico. On June 18, 2003, the Chapman trio captured convicted fugitive rapist Andrew Luster (heir to Max Factor cosmetics) who was wanted on 87 counts of rape. He had fled to Mexico. Duane, Leland and Tim have since been released on bail ($300,000 for Duane and $100,000 each for the other two).

On February 16, 2007, the second district court in Guadalajara denied a request for an injunction preventing extradition. The court ruled that Duane, Leland, and Tim should face trial on one count of "deprivation of liberty" in violation of the country's anti-bounty-hunting statutes. There have been multiple legal defense fund raising accounts set up for Duane, Leland, and Tim including one set up by Tanja "Doe," a victim of Andrew Luster.

On 1 August 2007, the ruling was appealed by the prosecution to overturn the decision. In Mexico most rulings such as this are automatically appealed and it can take some time for a decision to be made on the appeal. However, On 2 August, the First Criminal Court in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico dismissed all criminal charges pending against Dog, Tim and Leland Chapman on the grounds that the statute of limitations had expired. The order effectively cancelled all pending charges. The ruling, however, was appealed by the prosecution in order to overturn the lower court's decision. A&E was told that in Mexico, rulings against the prosecution are generally appealed as a matter of principle.

On 4 August 2007, on an episode of Larry King Live, while Duane "Dog" Chapman was talking, it was announced that the charges against Duane "Dog" Chapman, Leland Chapman, and Tim Chapman on the Andrew Luster case, had been dropped by the Mexican government.