ASSOCIATED PRESS
A judge said Wednesday that bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman can travel where he wants as long as he shows up at court on Monday.
Chapman must check in
weekly at Mexican courtThe Hawaii-based bounty hunter
says he will return "soon"
PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico >> Three bounty hunters facing charges over their capture of fugitive rapist Andrew Luster can travel where they want as long as they show up at court here each Monday, the judge overseeing the case said.
"They can do what they want with their free time," Judge Jose de Jesus Pineda Gutierrez said Wednesday after being told that Hawaii-based Duane "Dog" Chapman, son Leland and brother Timothy had returned to Los Angeles.
Pineda ordered the three tried on charges of criminal association and deprivation of liberty last month for a pre-dawn seizure of Luster, the Max Factor heir convicted in absentia in California of drugging and raping three women.
Prosecutors say the bounty hunters had no legal standing in Mexico and should have gone to police instead of snagging Luster themselves.
Each of the charges carries a maximum sentence of four years, though attorneys said Mexico's complex sentencing laws mean the maximum possible sentence would fall well short of eight years.
The case was to be handed over to a judge in Guadalajara in the coming weeks.
Pineda released the bounty hunters on $1,430 bail each on the condition that they sign in at the court in Puerto Vallarta each Monday. Mexican immigration officials added a bail of less than $300 each.
If the defendants do not appear, an arrest warrant could be issued and they could be imprisoned if they return to Mexico.
During a news conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Wednesday, Chapman said he would return to Mexico "soon."
"We still don't think we broke the law," he said.
Chapman's U.S. lawyer, James Blancarte, said he did not expect that his client would have to serve more prison time in Mexico.
Authorities briefly detained and charged a television producer and actor who went along with the bounty hunters to videotape Luster's capture, but Pineda threw out the charges against them.
