‘War of Roses’ Case Going to Trial : Divorce: Ex-wife and two men must face charges that she had her former husband tortured to force him to sign over stock, cash and the Laguna Niguel house the couple still shared.

LAGUNA NIGUEL —  A 61-year-old Laguna Beach woman was ordered to stand trial Tuesday on charges that she and two men used a flaming road flare to force her ex-husband to sign over ownership of their $600,000 house and hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock and other property.

South Orange County Municipal Judge Blair Barnette ruled that Helen Westin Ruppert and the men be tried on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and extortion.

Helen Ruppert, Richard William Nimmo, 52, of Newport Beach and Ralph Thomas Pueschel, 30, of Grand Terrace in San Bernardino County have all pleaded not guilty to the charges. A trial date will be set in a Feb. 19 Superior Court hearing.

Helen Ruppert’s former husband, Harold Ruppert, has compared the case to “War of the Roses,” a popular movie about a couple going through a bitter divorce. Although the Rupperts have been divorced for the last five years, they have shared the same house overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Laguna Beach because of their inability to agree to a property settlement.

Helen Ruppert lives in an upstairs penthouse while her ex-husband and his fiancee, who accompanied him to court Monday, live downstairs, according to court testimony.

Harold Ruppert, 65, testified Tuesday that his ordeal began Jan. 22, a few minutes after he received a call from his ex-wife, who was phoning him from her upstairs telephone line.

“She asked me if I was ready to settle,” Ruppert said, adding that his ex-wife then told him that two men were at his door inquiring about a Pomona nightclub he had for sale.

Ruppert testified that after letting Nimmo and Pueschel in the house, Nimmo immediately pushed him back in an office chair and produced several documents.

“Sign these papers or you’re a dead man,” he quoted Nimmo as saying.

When he refused to sign, he testified, Nimmo responded by saying: “How would you like to be buried beneath that ocean out there?”

According to his testimony, Ruppert said that he then reached for a telephone to dial 911 but that Nimmo turned to Pueschel, who is 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 230 pounds, and said: “OK, big boy, break his arms.”

At that point, Ruppert said, he attempted to stall the men, but Nimmo produced a flaming road flare and held it near Ruppert’s upper left leg.

“It was an instrument of death . . . an instrument of torture,” Ruppert said. “Nimmo said, ‘Have you ever felt your legs scorched? How would you like to feel your flesh burn?’ There were lots of fire. It was getting very warm.”

Frightened, he signed documents giving his ex-wife his share of the house, $180,000 worth of stock, thousands of shares of other stock, and a pledge to give her $30,000 in cash, Ruppert said.

As the two men left, Ruppert said, Nimmo ordered him to have the documents notarized within 48 hours or “you’re a dead man.”

Ruppert said he telephoned police, who arrested the two men a few minutes later.

Under cross-examination by James Sweeney, Pueschel’s attorney, Ruppert described Pueschel as “the enforcer” but acknowledged that he seldom spoke during the entire ordeal.

“I asked him if (he was there) to hurt me and he replied, ‘That’s right,’ ” Ruppert said.

If convicted, the three defendants each face up to seven years in jail, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Kelly MacEachern.