Lawbreaker or hero?

By Tanya Bricking
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman remains in Mexico, where he may face criminal charges in connection with his capture last week of convicted rapist Andrew Luster. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser What's a bounty hunter? Bounty hunters typically track those charged with crimes who go on the lam, thus putting their bail bondsman's money at risk. Sometimes agents do double duty, issuing bonds and tracking the deadbeats. How do they get paid? The prevailing fee for a bounty hunter is 15 percent of the bond in play.

But Chapman's Father's Day presents sit unopened on his kitchen counter in Kahala, while "Dog" has been ordered to stay in Mexico, because bounty hunting is considered kidnapping there. His family should find out today whether Mexican authorities will prosecute Chapman and his Hawai'i-based bounty-hunting team (which includes his son, Leland, brother, Tim, and a TV crew) on criminal charges in connection with the capture.

At home in Hawai'i, Chapman's wife, Beth Smith, has bought his favorite Skippy Squeeze Stix snacks in anticipation of his homecoming, along with paw-print lapel pins with cards that say "D.O.G. — Depend On God" for the ex-con-turned-born-again-Christian partner she calls "Big Daddy."

She has been working the phones and the Internet in hopes that supporters will keep the Chapman clan from being slapped with a legal fight that involves kidnapping without requesting ransom, which could carry a four-year prison sentence.

She has been on "Good Morning America" and shows with Geraldo Rivera, Rita Cosby and Dan Abrams. Her notebook is filled with numbers of callers from People Magazine, "America's Most Wanted," "Dateline" and every major news outlet. CNN has been on her big-screen TV practically 24/7.

She says the story everyone's missing is that "Dog" took a serial rapist off the streets, and Luster, the great-grandson of cosmetics king Max Factor, is behind bars on a 124-year sentence. She says it's the bounty hunters who should be free.

"We need our people of Hawai'i to rally around these men," she said. "We need help. We need support. We need our senators and governor saying 'We need our bounty hunters back.' "

A 'renegade cowboy'

But by Hawai'i standards, 50-year-old Duane "Dog" Chapman, whose Web site boasts he is "the greatest bounty hunter in the world with over 6,000 captures" is more "Walker, Texas Ranger" than your average island bounty hunter. For one thing, not too many people here even call themselves bounty hunters.

Bounty hunters work for bail bondsmen who risk losing the money they post with courts to ensure a defendant's return. While some bail agents estimate there are 2,400 hunters like "Dog" in the United States, there's hardly such a need in Hawai'i, where it's harder to hide. There are maybe a dozen such hunters here, tops, said Chris Zbiciack of Bail Hawaii Bail Bonds.

"We all employ them to a certain degree," said Chuck Fisher, a Honolulu bondsman at AAA Local Bail Bonds. "A lot of guys choose to do it themselves. There's an aura that hangs over the business. You think of loan sharks. But we're in the business of getting people out of jail."

Some bondsmen have criticized Chapman as a "renegade cowboy," saying that's just the kind of image they're trying to get away from.

"We work with law enforcement on everything. There's no tackling at taco stands," said Craig Stephenson, a board member of the California Bail Agents Association. "Phones are the most important thing. It's not all stakeouts in the middle of the night."

Real-life bounty hunting is rarely like the movies, said Letha DeCaires, the Honolulu police CrimeStoppers coordinator who keeps tabs on tips about fugitives.

"It's the phone and the stroke of the pen, and the attorneys behind you," she said. "The best bail bondsmen are the ones who are careful about the bonds they're going to take."

Selling bail bonds here is more like selling car insurance, said Jim Lindblad, president of the Hawaii Bail Agents Association.

"I would not walk across the street to pick up a bail walker," he said. "You're like a hunting dog. You point."

But Chapman never tried to be like the other guys. He always liked the high-profile cases and the jobs he thought nobody else could handle.

"He's a media hound, that's just Duane," said Dave Widhalm Sr., a bondsman in Denver who grew up with Chapman and worked with him on that city's Bail Bond Row.

"I call him a legend in his own mind. I guess he really is a legend now."

'He's come a long way'

The "Dog" grew up poor in Denver, the son of a Navy welder father and minister mother.

Chapman freely admits that he was once a thug. He earned his nickname as a Devil's Disciples motorcycle gang member and served time in Texas on an accessory-to-murder charge when his gang was convicted. When he was released 25 years ago, Chapman (now a father of 12) came up with the child-support money he owed by tracking down fugitives.

"Having been there, he knows how a thug thinks," said his sister, Jolene Martinez, who runs her own bail-bonds shop in Denver but became estranged from her brother because of the business. She calls what has happened a "sad, unfortunate thing" and says she's praying for him. "He's come a long way."

Chapman may look like a Hell's Angel with his leather jacket and unruly blond hair, but he can get the job done if you need him to find somebody, Widhalm said.

When "Dog" went into the bounty-hunting business, he had to carry Mace, because as an ex-con, he wasn't allowed to carry a gun. But he didn't show his fear. He'd say things like, "You know, Dog is God spelled backwards," Widhalm said.

Before making friends in Hollywood, he mingled with motivational speakers such as human-potential guru Anthony Robbins, who gushed in his book "Awaken the Giant Within" about the way Chapman turned his life around.

Smith says Chapman was on his way to Los Angeles to sign a movie deal when Luster went on the lam, and his Hollywood buddies encouraged him to find him. While Luster had put up his own money as bond and nobody hired Chapman to find him, "Dog" thought he could cash in on the reward.

In a week since Luster's capture, his e-mail message board has been slammed with nearly 40,000 hits.

"They're saying, 'We love you,' and 'Way to go, Dog!' " said Smith, who likes to say people's wives and daughters are the kind of people "Dog" saved by stopping Luster.

Reach Tanya Bricking at tbricking@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8026.