GRAND JUNCTION — Television bounty hunter Duane “Dog” Chapman and his posse earned an Internet smackdown from Mesa County Sheriff Stan Hilkey this week after they showed up at the county jail in a caravan of black SUVs with cameras rolling and a scuffed-up, pepper-sprayed bail jumper in tow.
Chapman’s team marched the reeking 29-year-old man into the jail lobby, contaminating that part of the building with the noxious spray. The lobby had to be evacuated. Decontamination measures, including open doors and fans, took hours.
“What happened inside the lobby is most troubling to me,” the sheriff wrote in his official sheriff’s blog later that day.
In the sheriff’s words, “While Dog stayed outside, shirtless and sweaty, prancing back and forth waving his golden locks for the camera, his team brought this freshly pepper- sprayed fellow into the enclosed space of the Sheriff’s Office lobby with other citizens present. They also brought him in injured.”
Hilkey noted that when law enforcement officers use pepper spray — and are not operating under the principles of “profit-driven peacockery” — they should call an ambulance for decontamination. The victim’s eyes should be flushed and airways checked for proper breathing. The protocol also calls for removing contaminated clothing before bringing anyone into an enclosed space or into contact with other people.
That’s in the real world.
In the world of reality television, “they just march this injured, contaminated mess in and expect us to jump up for an autograph???” the sheriff noted.
Chapman said the sheriff’s allegations about his behaving unprofessionally are unfounded. He said he used pepper balls on the fugitive because the man was trying to hijack a woman’s car as they chased him. He said they brushed off the pepper powder after the man was apprehended, checked his breathing and gave him a Dog promotional T-shirt to wear when they took him into the sheriff’s office.
Before they went in, Chapman said, he asked the man if he was OK, gave him a cigarette and let him call his mother.
That all happened after a three-day stakeout left Chapman and his helpers running on two hours of sleep.
“I know what I’m doing. For 30 years I’ve been doing this,” Chapman said. “I want people to like me. I don’t want to act like some kind of superstar. I want to be real.”
The incident was defused when a sheriff’s office employee called an ambulance and the alleged bail jumper, Andrew Distel, was decontaminated in the parking lot.
The troubles with the bounty hunter did not end there.
“Mrs. Dog (Duane Chapman’s wife and co-star, Beth) attempted to lay a big ol’ guilt trip on our staff about ‘releasing’ their catch and educating us about what our judges would think of us,” Hilkey wrote.
Despite the criticism, Chapman seemed to hold no grudges. He even said he might go into semi-retirement in a few years, move to Grand Junction and run for Mesa sheriff after Hilkey is gone.
“I’m sorry he didn’t understand what happened,” Chapman said about the sheriff. “I am a nice guy. Really!”
Nancy Lofholm: 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com
