By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News
October 12, 2006

When he learned that Rep. Tom Tancredo came to his defense, burly bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman reacted in a way one wouldn't expect.
"I cry easy, so to tell you I cried doesn't tell you very much," Chapman said in a telephone interview from his home in Hawaii.

Tancredo is leader of the "Set the Dog Free" movement in Congress. He and 29 other Republican congressmen have signed a letter asking Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to block Chapman's pending extradition to Mexico.

"Colorado is our home, bro. We've done a lot of work there. I thought most of my friends were gone. It's proven today that they're not," Chapman said.

Chapman, a Denver native, launched a bail bond and bounty-hunting business in Colorado in 1980. After some high-profile arrests of fugitives, he gained national fame as host of the A&E network's reality show, Dog The Bounty Hunter.

Now, Mexico wants him extradited there. He was arrested last month, along with two of his colleagues, on a charge of illegal detention and conspiracy, the Associated Press reported. The charge stems from his capture of convicted rapist Andrew Luster, the Max Factor heir, on June 18, 2003, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Chapman's case has become a cause celebre on the Internet, with a "Set the Dog Free" anthem and an official Web site, www.dogthebountyhunter.com/main.php.

Tancredo has tried to draw attention to the case since last month. This week, he enlisted Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colorado Springs, and 28 other colleagues in sending a letter protesting the State Department's approval of the pending extradition.

"Why is the department pursuing this case when Mr. Chapman was in communications and cooperating with U.S. and Mexican authorities before and throughout the entire period he was pursuing Mr. Luster?" the letter says. "Finally - and perhaps most importantly - why is Mr. Chapman being 'rewarded' for everything he has done for both the U.S. and Mexico by bringing Mr. Luster in with the prospect of serving jail time in Mexico?"

Chapman is no stranger to jail. In his 20s, he served about 18 months in a Texas prison in connection with a homicide. Chapman said he had nothing to do with the fatal shooting, although he was in the area and heard the gunshot.

Skills he honed in prison, combined with happenstance, led him into the bail bonds and bounty-hunting business. Now, with his company, Free As A Bird Bail Bonds, which is still operating in Colorado, he describes himself as "like a freak-of-nature convict gone good."

But he says all of that is at risk if he gets tossed into a Mexican jail, where he figures he'd meet up with plenty of violent criminals who have no love for fugitive hunters.

"This is the real deal. This is a life-threatening travesty," Chapman said. "What I worry about most is leaving my family and going to jail. There's no bucket of gold at the end of this rainbow. There's a cell."