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Dog the Bounty Hunter Bitten by Lawsuit
Looks like someone threw Dog a rotten bone.
Duane "Dog" Chapman, the mullet-sporting criminal wrangler from A&E's Dog the Bounty Hunter, has been sued by a California man claiming he was wrongfully pegged as a fugitive on the reality show and was subsequently targeted by local police.
Simaile "Cisco" Lutu is suing the small-screen vigilante, his bail bond business, the cable net and local police for unspecified damages in a civil lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S District Court in San Francisco.
The 29-year-old nightclub promoter claims he was manhandled in Daly City last May when a member of Dog's justice-seeking posse mistook him for Samu Savea, a bail-skipping drug dealer who had played for the town's semi-pro football team.
Happening upon Lutu, and thinking he was the suspect, Dog's son, Leland Chapman, tried to grab and restrain the innocent man.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Lutu said in the footage, adding, "Y'all about to see Dog f--k up."
After the bounty hunter realized his team's mistake, he left Lutu, telling him to "be safe."
Chalk it up to mistaken identity, miscommunication or a violation of civil rights, but the following day, Daly City police, who had been working with Dog to catch Savea, apprehended Lutu and held him, handcuffed and at gunpoint, at a local health club, per court papers.
While he was released hours later, his freedom didn't last long.
Lutu, who clearly must bear more than a striking resemblance to the fugitive, was cornered by police again the following day, once more being handcuffed and held at gunpoint, this time at a nightclub in a neighboring city, according to his lawsuit.
"This is reality TV run amok," Lutu's attorney, Jim Hammer, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "There's got to be a bright line between television entertainment on one hand and real police work on the other."
While the initial incident was featured on the season premiere of Dog the Bounty Hunter, the latter two police encounters weren't, since Dog was not present.
But his ill-fated TV cameo has Lutu steamed. He also claims in his lawsuit that he never signed the release form allowing his image to appear on TV and that the broadcast of his near-arrest irreparably damaged his reputation.
For his part, Dog, who did manage to nab Savea a few months later, said he was surprised by the lawsuit.
"Cisco called me right after the show and said, 'Thanks, Dog, all the girls love me now,' " Champan told the Chronicle. "Brother, I haven't heard anything that he's upset."
Dog the Bounty Hunter ended its third season earlier this month with a wedding and unexpected death, drawing a combined 8 million viewers for the two-part finale.
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