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Motel owner sues TV bounty hunters
By R. Scott Rappold
The Gazette
(MCT)
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A Colorado Springs motel owner is suing the stars of the television show "Dog the Bounty Hunter," claiming they assaulted him during filming here, and that the episode has hurt his reputation and business.
Roy Barnes, owner of the Aztec Motel, wants an unspecified amount in damages and for cable network A&E to stop running the episode. He claims in the suit that he receives hate mail and phone calls every time it airs, and it has made him unable to sell the motel.
The show, the most popular on cable network A&E, follows the exploits of Duane "Dog" Chapman, a longtime Colorado bounty hunter now based in Hawaii, and his family.
The bounty hunters could not be reached for comment. Duane and his son Leland Chapman were arrested Thursday in Hawaii and were awaiting extradition to Mexico to face charges related to the capture of a fugitive there in 2003.
They were in Colorado Springs in June 2005, looking for a bail jumper wanted on traffic and other warrants. After being told by an acquaintance he was at the Aztec, they went there, could not find him and got in a confrontation with Barnes, who ordered them to leave the property.
A fight broke out, police were called and Barnes, who had several cuts on his face and head, swelling under his right eye and fractured ribs, twice changed his mind about filing charges, according to police reports.
The 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office later dropped the charge against Leland Chapman after being shown a tape of the incident, though the film crew initially refused to show one to police.
Barnes' lawsuit claims the bounty hunters intentionally caused a confrontation, and that it is a regular procedure on the show for Duane Chapman's wife, Beth, to provoke people to violence.
"They came out here to make a TV show and if they could get some innocent person to beat up for national TV, that was just frosting on the cake," his attorney, Lloyd Kordick, said Thursday. "The guy wasn't there. They should have left when they were directed to by the owner of the property."
Kordick said neither the bounty hunters nor the camera crew got Barnes' consent to use his image in the program, and the episode has plagued him since.
"He just can't get rid of it. Every time he turns around, somebody sees it again, and he's embarrassed again. He relives it," he said.
Bobby Brown, a local bail bondsman who invited the bounty hunters here, also is named in the lawsuit. He said they had a legitimate reason to think fugitive Harry Whaley was at the Aztec.
"We were right on his trail the entire time. Nobody said, `Let's go agitate the guy at the Aztec,'" Brown said.
Neither Barnes nor a spokesman for A&E returned messages for comment.
It's not the first legal difficulty for Duane Chapman. His arrest on Mexican charges of illegal detention and conspiracy Thursday stemmed from his capture of Max Factor heir Andrew Luster on June 18, 2003, in Puerto Vallarta. Chapman, his son and another associate jumped bail, and the Mexican government has sought them since.
He has served time in prison for being an accessory to murder, was arrested numerous times in Colorado while working as a bondsman here, and last month was sued by two San Francisco men featured on an episode.
In that episode, the bounty hunters apprehended a man, but they released him after realizing they had the wrong person.
Brown, who brought the bounty hunters back to Colorado Springs this summer to film several more episodes, said people condemn Chapman for his past.
"He bends over backwards to be polite to everybody," Brown said. "He does everything by the book, and he's one of the easiest guys in the world to get along with."
He noted that Barnes shook hands with the bounty hunters after the scuffle, and that he only changed his mind when someone told him he had to file charges in order to later pursue a civil suit, an account confirmed by police reports.
"It's obvious the only reason there is a lawsuit is there is money there," Brown said.
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