‘Hero’ in Aborted Kidnaping Takes a Fall

A man lauded as a hero for saving a woman from a possible kidnaping last year has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from an earlier incident in which he beat up his ex-girlfriend, threatened her with a loaded gun and cut off two feet of her hair.

“In this incident, he was a coward as opposed to a hero,” prosecutor Marc Kelly said of John Edward Pagnini. Pagnini, 38, reached at the motorcycle shop he owns in Santa Ana, declined to comment on the case. His attorney, Jim Stotler, could not be reached for comment.

In September, Pagnini was hailed as a hero for chasing two would-be kidnapers 30 miles along the freeways from Santa Ana to Long Beach after noticing a woman struggling in the back seat of the car.

“It was just something I felt I had to do,” he said at the time. “The look in the girl’s face is one I will never, ever forget--the fright. Her face was against the back window and I could see the guy swinging at her.”

The 95-m.p.h. chase ended when the men rammed Pagnini’s new $40,000 uninsured sports car and disabled their own car in the process. Both men were arrested.

“I’m just happy for the girl,” Pagnini said. “I didn’t want to see those guys get away.”

At the time, Kelly said on Thursday, Pagnini had been charged with the 1993 assault on his ex-girlfriend, whom the prosecutor declined to identify.

In the earlier incident, Kelly said, Pagnini became enraged during an argument with the woman, with whom he shared a home in Costa Mesa. Kelly could not say how the argument began but before it was over Pagnini had threatened her with a loaded revolver, hit her and cut her hair.

“He basically beat her up,” Kelly said.

The woman, who has since moved out of Southern California, went to a women’s shelter and Pagnini was arrested. Late Wednesday afternoon, he walked into the courtroom of Orange County Superior Court Judge James K. Turner and unexpectedly pleaded guilty to felony assault with a firearm and domestic battery just as a jury was about to be selected for his trial.

The onetime hero could face up to two years in state prison as a result of his guilty pleas. Sentencing has been set for April 28.