Duane 'Dog' Chapman Goes 'On the Record'

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record ," August 13, 2007. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: Duane "Dog" Chapman, the unstoppable bounty hunter is back, and back in a big way tonight. He is the star of the hit TV show Dog the Bounty Hunter, and now he has written a new book too. It is called "You Can Run, But You Can't Hide."

Duane "Dog" Chapman, his wife Beth, and Dog's lawyer Jim Quadra join us. And welcome to all of you. First, Dog, I would say, particularly, welcome to Washington, D.C.

DUANE "DOG" CHAPMAN, BOUNTY HUNTER: Thank you very much, ma'am. It's a pleasure to be here, and thank you, ma'am, very much.

VAN SUSTEREN: And I should point out that you are a free man.

DUANE CHAPMAN: I feel so great. I was a little disappointed in, maybe, what America could have done for me. So, in order to get the feeling back, God bless America, I'm here in America's capital.

Today we went to visit Abraham Lincoln, yesterday George Washington, and it is starting to come back. My new word viva la Mexico, and as of today, it is viva la Mexico and god bless America.

VAN SUSTEREN: And, Beth, he is out of trouble. That must be a huge relief.

BETH CHAPMAN: We just call him "free bird" now.

VAN SUSTEREN: How much pressure was it on you?

BETH CHAPMAN: Unbelievable amount. We pride ourselves on being very, very solid. We have a very solid relationship. And it was very hard. It was very hard. The boys were very depressed. They had a very hard time functioning. It was extremely difficult on our relationship and on our family. It was terrible.

VAN SUSTEREN: So Jim, how did you do it? How did you get this guy out of trouble?

JIM QUADRA, DUANE "DOG" CHAPMAN'S ATTORNEY: Well, first of all—

VAN SUSTEREN: First, explain what it is. He went after a horrible rapist in Mexico.

QUADRA: Correct. He captured Andrew Luster, who had escaped from the United States in the midst of trial, and who was tried in absentia and found guilty of 80 counts of sexual assault and rape.

And Dog and Leland and Tim Chapman were able to track down Luster and find in Mexico where no one else had. And they captured him. And as a result of that capture, then charges were filed against the three of them in Mexico.

The only charge, actually, that was filed was illegal deprivation of liberty in Mexico, which is a minor crime. It has a range of a sentence from about six months to four years. But, in any case, it's not considered a huge crime in Mexico.

It is a serious matter any time that you are charged with a crime. But, in any case, that's the charge. And that's what has been hanging over their head, because he was—he can talk better about this, and it's in his book—he was led to believe he could leave Mexico, and that it, basically, would be a fine. And, instead what happened is—

VAN SUSTEREN: The Marshal showed up at your house in Hawaii.

QUADRA: Right.

DUANE CHAPMAN: In Hawaii—some of my good friends.

VAN SUSTEREN: That must have been a rude awakening.

DUANE CHAPMAN: Absolutely. The hunter became the hunted. It was terrible. And some of the marshals were, but most of them were sad to do this.

I thought we were being punked like the TV show, and I was ready to be released at any time.

VAN SUSTEREN: Handcuffed?

DUANE CHAPMAN: Absolutely. Kidnapping and conspiracy is one of the five major felonies, so, absolutely, handcuffed.

VAN SUSTEREN: And what did you think? Were you there when he was handcuffed?

BETH CHAPMAN: Oh, yes. I was actually begging the marshals to let me wake him up, because I knew that those men surrounding his bed with guns would just give him a heart attack. He is 53 years old.

DUANE CHAPMAN: Easy.

BETH CHAPMAN: He can't just overcome that kind of early in the morning. I think it was very shocking for him.

And my one son, Gary, who was 6, just stood there with his hands over his ears screaming, because he just could not understand that. And he sees his daddy on TV, and he sees his daddy in parades, and he sees people cheering him, and knowing that he is a hero because is he cleaning up the meth problem all over the country. And to see his daddy taken out of the house that morning in handcuffs like that was extremely traumatizing to the whole family.

VAN SUSTEREN: So is it over, Jim?

QUADRA: We have had all the charges dropped against the three— Leland, Tim, and Duane. In Mexico the deprivation of charges are gone, the charges are gone. And he is free to travel anywhere in Mexico. He is free to arrive in Mexico. But it has been appealed by the District Attorney in Mexico in the state of Helisco, which is an automatic situation for them. That's how they respond to losing, in a sense.

And so we are hopeful that if the court looks at it on the merits, we are confident, then, it will happen, and it will be totally done.

VAN SUSTEREN: Congratulations to you. We are going to take a quick break. Jim, thank you very much. Dog and Beth are sticking around. They have a lot more to tell you, especially about this book. So don't you go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAN SUSTEREN: He fights for justice. He is a TV star, and now is he an author, too. Duane Dog Chapman and his wife Beth are still with us.

But first, his hit show "Dog the Bounty Hunter" is now in season four. Here is a clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DUANE CHAPMAN: Come on, Mona Lisa, we are coming through the door.

BETH CHAPMAN: Watch your back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mona Lisa, open the damn door, we are coming in right now. We know you're in there.

DUANE CHAPMAN: Open the door we have got warrants.

BETH CHAPMAN: One, two, three—take it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAN SUSTEREN: Duane "Dog" Chapman, his wife Beth are back with us. Dog, everyplace you go, are you recognized? Now you have a book, you have a TV show—

DUANE CHAPMAN: Yes everywhere we go. But it doesn't hurt my business, because I don't want it to infiltrate the—say I was chasing a Klansman, I never wanted to infiltrate. I wanted them to know that I was coming.

VAN SUSTEREN: So you are still doing your bounty hunting business, even though now you are a TV star and an author?

DUANE CHAPMAN: Absolutely. First, the bounty hunter.

VAN SUSTEREN: Beth, where did you guys meet?

BETH CHAPMAN: Well, we met when I went to jail, and he actually was my bail bondsman.

VAN SUSTEREN: Was he a good bail bondsman?

BETH CHAPMAN: No, he was terrible. He made my bond out there on the bus, Greta. And so he made me sit in jail for six more hours while I waited on the bus to show up.

DUANE CHAPMAN: It was $200 bond, so I was making $20.

BETH CHAPMAN: Whatever, so you say.

VAN SUSTEREN: You sent a bond on a bus?

BETH CHAPMAN: Yes. How rude.

DUANE CHAPMAN: What year was this?

BETH CHAPMAN: In 1989, 1988.

VAN SUSTEREN: How did you find out he was a bondsman?

BETH CHAPMAN: I worked for the Majority Leader of the Senate in Colorado, and I had—.

VAN SUSTEREN: This is getting worse. This is a terrible story.

BETH CHAPMAN: I went to the grocery store, and I had lemons that I was buying. And, subsequently, I had taken a gun off my then boyfriend, because he was kind of flourishing around, and I thought this dummy is going to get arrested, right?

So I took the gun and put it in my pocket and went to the grocery store and took bought these lemons. Well, I'm standing in the express line, of course, the senator calls.

So, it is like when you call you assistant, right? They run to the phone. So I ran to the phone, and I quickly got arrested for shoplift ago lemon.

And then, of course, I had a gun on me.

VAN SUSTEREN: That didn't help.

BETH CHAPMAN: No.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did you beat the charges?

BETH CHAPMAN: It was misuse of a firearm and illegal, something. Yes, I finally beat the charges, but I had to go to jail. I called the bondsmen. They said call my friend Dog. I'm like, Dog?

And then I wouldn't go in because I was mad at him, because he took so long to get my bond out there. So he kept telling me "If you don't get in here I'm going to revoke your bond." So I went in there and I saw him, and I thought "Oh, no, let the stalking begin."

VAN SUSTEREN: You liked him right away.

BETH CHAPMAN: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: Really? What was it?

BETH CHAPMAN: The very bad boy persona that he had at that time. The black leather, the long hair—very vicious looking. He was my kind of guy.

DUANE CHAPMAN: Terrible.

VAN SUSTEREN: Why did you put the money on the bus.

DUANE CHAPMAN: Well, I put the bond on there. It is just a power of attorney, because it was $250 bond, and we made 10 percent. I was making $20.

BETH CHAPMAN: Had he known what he looked like in advance, he would have came.

DUANE CHAPMAN: I would not have. You were a client. I tell the truth, I wouldn't date you until the bond was over. So she went in and made a deal with the judge and pled guilt and showed back up at the office.

VAN SUSTEREN: And did you like her then?

DUANE CHAPMAN: Yes. I saw the spunk. I saw there was something in her. I used to work with Anthony Robbins, the motivational speaker, and all the girlfriends or wives I had was "Who is that guy?" When Beth heard a tape from Anthony Robbins, she is like "Who is that guy?"

So, right then I thought she may be right for me.

VAN SUSTEREN: So, let's talk about this bounty hunter stuff. Do you ever get scared?

DUANE CHAPMAN: All the time. I mean, not scared, but you get worried. Like you put the picture on the mantel because you watch it, and you get to know the person, and all of a sudden the guys eyes are following you, and these voices say "I'm the guy that's going to get you."

If you dwell on that, absolutely. But we know that we are fighting for justice and the American way, and we got to make sure everything is legal. And we take a deep breath, and he haw, here we come.

VAN SUSTEREN: It doesn't scare you that he does this?

BETH CHAPMAN: Every time.

VAN SUSTEREN: It does.

BETH CHAPMAN: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: You could tell him to stop. He can make money on the book and TV show. He doesn't need to do it anymore.

BETH CHAPMAN: We couldn't reach anybody, we couldn't help anybody, and we couldn't give the love that we give to people if we sat behind our desk.

VAN SUSTEREN: So you are fine on this?

BETH CHAPMAN: I have got to be.

VAN SUSTEREN: How about the TV? Is it fun to do TV.

DUANE CHAPMAN: It's absolutely great. It's not fun to watch it, but it's fun to film the show. I don't watch it, and just turn the volume up.

But, the other day we were doing a bust, and the guy said "What does that guy have on the shoulder?" And I said "That's a bazooka, we are going to blow your porch off."

And, of course, he came backwards out the door with his hands up and got in the car and said, "Dog, you lied, that's a camera." I said "You lied to. You said you would go to court. Brother, we are even."

BETH CHAPMAN: We are extremely effective, Greta. We pretty much have 100 percent success rate, anybody we go after we get.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, the book, "You Can Run, but You Can't Hide" is extraordinary, because I learn so much about you that I had no idea, Dog. And I am not even going to tell the viewers so they go out and buy this. They need to go out and buy this, because it is a very colorful passage, to say the least.

DUANE CHAPMAN: Thank you very much.

BETH CHAPMAN: It's on the best seller book this week.

VAN SUSTEREN: It is on the best seller list, so everyone should buy this and be a part of it. Nice to see you here in Washington, aloha, and all that stuff, and thank you both.

BETH CHAPMAN: Thank you.

DUANE CHAPMAN: Thank you.

VAN SUSTEREN: You can catch "Dog the Bounty Hunter" on A&E. Season four is airing right now. Check your local listings for times.

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