LOS ANGELES - TV bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman appeared Saturday at a holiday toy giveaway sponsored by a black advocacy group, weeks after publicly apologizing for using a racial slur.
Chapman handed out toys to dozens of children and signed copies of his book "You Can Run But You Can't Hide," said Ermias Alemayehu of the conservative Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny.
"We don't condone racial slurs, but upon hearing Dog's apology and after meeting with him and his family, we don't believe he's a racist. We also believe that Duane 'Dog' Chapman sincerely wants to make amends to the black community, and deserves a second chance," BOND founder the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson said in a statement.
Chapman, 54, apologized in November for repeatedly using the N-word during a March phone call to his son, Tucker, urging him to break up with a black girlfriend.
The subsequent Web release of the recorded conversation by The National Enquirer led the A&E television network to put Chapman's reality show, "Dog the Bounty Hunter," indefinitely on hold.
In a Fox News interview, Chapman denied being a racist and said he used the slur conversationally when talking to black acquaintances.
