Bounty hunters keep prosecutors in limbo
Associated Press
PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico — For the second straight week, bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman failed to show up in the Mexican court where he is being tried on charges of snatching cosmetics heir Andrew Luster.
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Prosecutors in this Pacific coast resort say they're just waiting until the judge gives the go-ahead, and then they'll put out an all-points request to Interpol — and possibly an extradition request to the United States — for Chapman, his son Leland and brother Timothy.
Duane "Dog" Chapman returned to Hawai'i on Friday.
But the judge presiding over the case has yet to declare Chapman in violation of his bail, one of whose conditions was that he remain in Mexico and check at the courthouse each Monday. Chapman hasn't done either. Since his release on bail June 23, Chapman returned to California in late June, and then traveled Friday to Hawai'i. He has suggested he won't return to Mexico, citing fears of possible reprisals and mistreatment.
"We're just waiting for the judge in the case to certify that these people didn't show up," said state prosecutor Marco Juarez Gonzalez. "I don't why he hasn't issued that notification yet."
Judge Jose de Jesus Pineda said last week that the three — all of whom are charged with criminal association and deprivation of liberty, counts that can carry up to eight years in prison — had to show up. Later, he said he didn't need to see them in his courtroom yet.
