Man Pleads Not Guilty to Taking Wife on Wild Ride

A 32-year-old North Hollywood man has pleaded not guilty to charges that he sped through San Fernando Valley streets at up to 60 m.p.h. with his wife on the hood of his car, clinging to the windshield wipers, authorities said Wednesday.

Jose Martin Castaneda was arraigned in Van Nuys Municipal Court on Tuesday, Deputy City Atty. Wayne Mooney said.

Mooney said Castaneda and his 28-year-old wife, whose name was not made public, had been arguing at the top of a staircase at their Laurel Canyon Boulevard apartment building Saturday morning when he walked downstairs with his three children, ages 4, 6 and 12.

They got into his car and Castaneda started to drive off when his wife dashed out of the apartment building and threw herself on the car hood, Mooney said.

Castaneda, Mooney said, did not stop but accelerated down Laurel Canyon Boulevard and along Dehougne Street, occasionally swerving and braking sharply, Mooney said. His wife continued to cling to the car’s windshield wipers.

Eventually, Castaneda pulled into a fire station in the 7000 block of Laurel Canyon Boulevard, where he and his wife were detained by city firefighters, Mooney said. The wife was treated at the station for abrasions on her left hand, thigh and knee.

Castaneda is charged with one count each of spousal battery, assault with a deadly weapon, reckless driving and driving without a license.