Wife Can’t Steer Him From Trouble : Pursuits: Ignoring the pleas of his pregnant spouse, a North Hollywood man stops fleeing car. Police say they wish good Samaritans would keep their distance.

A North Hollywood construction worker’s wife called him on his truck phone Monday to warn him to get out of the way of CHP cars chasing a suspected kidnaper from Barstow through the San Fernando Valley. Instead, Jim Duque forced the fleeing car to stop--ignoring his wife’s screams of protest as she watched on TV.

“She kind of got upset,” Duque, 25, said Tuesday.

Despite the protests of his wife, who is 8 1/2 months pregnant with their first child, Duque said, “it just felt like the right thing to do.”

Duque’s dramatic blocking move at the junction where the northbound Hollywood Freeway merges with the Golden State Freeway in Sun Valley helped authorities capture Charles Frances Edwards, who had led CHP officers on a chase for more than 180 miles from Barstow.

At the time, authorities believed that Edwards might have kidnaped April Leigh Jones, the 21-year-old woman in his car. Barstow police began the chase after receiving a phone call from a gas station clerk who said Jones reported she had been abducted.

Edwards, who was being held in the San Bernardino County Jail on $25,000 bail, denied kidnaping the woman.

And on Tuesday, Jones backed him up. She told police she was Edwards’ girlfriend and “was very adamant when on the phone . . . that she was not a kidnap victim,” Barstow Police Sgt. Art Hibbetts said. He said he doubted the kidnap charge “is going to fly.” The woman denied telling the gas station clerk that she was being held against her will and explained to police that she and the driver did not stop because they believed they were being followed by dangerous gangsters, Hibbetts said.

It was the latest twist in the case that began Monday at 3:39 p.m., spanning six highways in two counties at speeds of up to 95 m.p.h. At some points, Edwards weaved in and out of rush-hour traffic, with a string of police and CHP cars trailing him.

The most dramatic moment of the chase occurred about 5:45 p.m. when Duque entered the picture.

Duque, a construction supervisor, said he was driving his pickup truck on the Hollywood Freeway from a job in Toluca Lake to one in Sun Valley when he heard radio reports that there was a high-speed pursuit approaching him.

He said it was not long before his 24-year-old wife called him on his truck phone to say that she was watching the chase on television and was worried that it would come near him and he could be hurt.

“She told me to pull over,” Duque said.

But Duque had other ideas.

“I just thought about stopping the guy,” Duque said.

Duque asked his wife what color the car was and explained his intentions.

“She said, ‘Don’t do anything. Just pull over.’ ”

But it was too late. Duque’s adrenalin was pumping.

“I saw police,” he said. “They got closer. Then I saw the car. Then, I pulled in front of it.”

Driving about 30 m.p.h., Duque forced Edwards’ car to halt, blocking attempts by Edwards to get around him. Just before the car stopped, Duque said, Edwards looked him in the eye and threw up his hands in resignation.

“He looked at me and just smiled,” Duque said.

Duque’s wife, who watched a news helicopter’s pictures of her husband’s actions on television, wasn’t smiling.

“I was on the phone with her the whole time,” Duque said. “She was screaming at me.”

Duque waited in the cab of his truck as CHP officers leaped from their vehicles with guns drawn.

Edwards stepped out, hands in the air. Duque said he stayed put “in case he got back in or something.”

But an officer yelled at him through a bullhorn to “get out of there,” Duque said, so he drove off.

In the same nonchalant manner that he had stopped the driver, Duque continued on to work, where he was overseeing the remodeling of a bathroom. It wasn’t his first experience at freeway crime-fighting.

About a year ago, Duque said, he was caught in slow traffic driving south on the Hollywood Freeway when he saw a man cause a multi-car accident and then try to flee on foot.

“I blocked him from running with the whole car,” Duque said. The man managed to maneuver past Duque. Another motorist attempting the same block struck a policeman instead, Duque said. The man who caused the accident was later apprehended, Duque said. News stories of an accident that fits his description said the officer suffered a broken leg.

Police wish good Samaritans like Duque would stay out of highly charged situations, like pursuits, Highway Patrol Lt. Mick Charlton said.

On Monday, CHP officers followed department policy by staying behind Edwards’ car, calling in new officers as the chase progressed. Eventually, Charlton said, suspects must try to abandon their car or run out of gas, presenting a safer opportunity for officers to catch them. Pulling up next to a suspect’s car or veering in front of it could be dangerous if the suspect is armed, Charlton said.

As for Duque, Charlton said, “It certainly helped us, but it’s not a smart thing to be doing.”

Duque said the reaction of most of his friends was “like, right on.” But Duque’s wife expressed the same concerns that the CHP did, if less diplomatically.

“She asked me if I was crazy, basically,” Duque said.