VENTURA : Child-Abduction Case to Go Forward

A judge ruled Wednesday that enough evidence exists to sustain child-abduction charges against a 33-year-old woman in a case that started in Ventura and ended with her arrest in Sri Lanka.

Niki Lynn Ruberoe, formerly of Seacliff Court in Ventura, has been charged with two counts of child abduction, one count of conspiracy to jump bail, and one count of aiding and abetting bail jumping.

Prosecutors say Ruberoe took her 13-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son to Paris in violation of a temporary custody order.

Ruberoe had lost custody of the children when her husband, the children’s stepfather, was convicted in July of molesting the girl. The husband, Channa Ruberoe, 28, had molested the girl when she was 10.

An investigator testified during a preliminary hearing Wednesday that Niki Ruberoe helped arrange for her husband’s release from jail on bail after his conviction.

On Aug. 17, she fled to Paris with the children in violation of the custody order, said Dennis C. Peet, district attorney’s investigator.

Niki Ruberoe kept the children in Paris--where authorities say Channa Ruberoe has relatives--until Nov. 16. At that time, she sent them back to their biological father in Virginia, Peet testified.

He said she later joined her husband in his native Sri Lanka, where authorities arrested her. She was deported earlier this month. Extradition proceedings are under way against Channa Ruberoe.

Municipal Judge Bruce A. Clark ordered Niki Ruberoe to appear for felony arraignment Jan. 12. She is being held in Ventura County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.