Bounty hunter is still in network’s doghouse

Answer: Da Kine Bail Bonds is still in business, and Duane and Beth Chapman are still in charge, workers there said this week.

However, two different men who answered the phone at Da Kine's Queen Emma Street office Thursday and yesterday would not say how often the owners come into the office since the A&E Television Network suspended taping new episodes or airing its former top show, "Dog, the Bounty Hunter," in early November.

A&E's move came two days after the release of a private phone conversation in which Duane Chapman repeatedly used a racial slur to describe a son's black girlfriend.

On A&E's Web site, "Dog The Bounty Hunter" remains listed as one of its shows, and prior-season collections remain for sale. But Dan Silberman, vice president of publicity for A&E, said yesterday he could not say when, or if, the show will return.

"Nothing has changed on our end. It's still off the schedule for the foreseeable future," he said.

Silberman confirmed that fans and detractors of the Dog have been contacting the network asking it to bring the show back or cancel it.

The Chapmans and their spokeswoman Mona Wood did not return calls asking for comment on their plans for their bail bond business in Honolulu or the bounty hunting TV show.

Chapman's personal Web site has a Dec. 21 New York Sun opinion column by writer Alicia Colon praising Chapman for his apparent sincerity in apologizing for his language.

Colon met the Chapmans last month at the Congress for Racial Equality offices in New York.

CORE Chairman Roy Innis, who was one of the first black leaders to call for taking "Dog, the Bounty Hunter" off the air after Chapman's comments were made public, is now advising him "in his efforts to seek reconciliation and atonement," according to the social justice organization's online newsletter.

The newsletter says Duane and Beth Chapman have been invited to CORE's Jan. 21 Martin Luther King Day dinner in New York and includes photos of the pair posing with CORE staffers.