TVSquad

While awaiting an extradition ruling by a Mexican judge in connection with his arrest of Andrew Luster in 2003, Duane "Dog" Chapman (a.k.a. Dog the bounty hunter) has had another lawsuit filed against him, this time by a woman who claims she was injured by Dog and his crew while they were apprehending her boyfriend.

Audrey Emery says she was thrown down a flight of stairs and suffered a broken back after Dog and his team broke into her apartment to capture suspect Stuart Calistro. Chapman and his wife Beth have released a statement saying they always work within the boundaries of the law and that as Dog has become more famous they've been slapped with more and more "frivolous lawsuits."

As much as I'd like to play "armchair lawyer" here, I really don't know what to think of this. I obviously wasn't there when all of this went down, but it seems that in Dog's line of work in which you're working with the law rather than for the law, there's always going to be the question as to whether or not you've crossed the line and did more than you should have.

If you're a fan of bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman and want to stay current about what's been going on with him since his capture last month, A&E has a page on their site where Dog's wife Beth gives fans quick video updates on how Dog is doing, as well as his son Leland and his brother Tim, who were also arrested in connection with the arrest of convicted rapist Andrew Luster in Mexico. I've been trying to follow this since it happened, and not much new news has developed in the last few weeks. Beth's updates reflect this, and she mostly just talks about how everyone is doing emotionally. In that respect, I can only recommend this to those who are diehard fans of the series. People looking for the cold, hard facts aren't going to learn much, at least not at this time.

This season's premiere of Dog the Bounty Hunter had Dog and his crew flying to San Francisco to capture a suspected drug dealer named Samu Savea who had been eluding them for years. He was rumored to be playing on a semi-professional football team called the Daly City Renegades. Dog's team staked out the practice field, and spotted one player who they thought was Savea, but was actually Simaile "Cisco" Lutu, a nightclub promoter. Dog's son Leland was the first to approach Lutu, but it was soon revealed he wasn't the man they were after. Now Lutu has filed a lawsuit against Dog and his bail bonds company. He claims he was handcuffed and held at gunpoint by police officers on two separate occasions following his encounter with Dog.

I actually saw the episode in question, and what puzzles me is that the lawsuit claims Lutu asked not to have his image shown on television. That may be true, but during the scene on the practice field he was doing everything he could to be seen on camera, and so did many of his teammates. At the time, it appeared that he was absolutely enthralled with the idea of being the center of attention on a popular reality program. Dog also says that Lutu called him after the show aired and thanked him because all the girls loved seeing him. It will be interesting to see if this lawsuit actually goes anywhere.

[via TV Filter]