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Mortgage-Fraud Defendant Interrupts, Delays His Own Bond Hearing

(CBS) -- He should rot in jail – that's the response from alleged victims of Mark Diamond, who is accused of a reverse-mortgage scheme that defrauded seniors of millions.

Thursday, a judge was supposed to decide whether Diamond would get bond. As CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker reports, the hearing was postponed because Diamond wouldn't shut up.

Gloria Muldrow says her late mother trusted Diamond to remodel her home.

But instead, she says, Diamond tricked her 89-year-old mother into signing a reverse mortgage for $110,000; he allegedly took the money and almost took their home before feds arrested him.

"It's sickening," Muldrow says. "My mother struggled all her life to pay for this."

Muldrow's mother, Lillie Williams, is among the 122 seniors Diamond allegedly schemed out of $10 million. She joined others in court to attend Diamond's bond hearing.

Federal prosecutors argued for no bond, saying Diamond can't be trusted because he had violated prior court orders and was allegedly operating another scam.

Diamond's lawyer countered the 60-year-old defendant may have done something inappropriate, but it wasn't criminal.

Diamond himself caused the judge to postpone the hearing because he kept interrupting his own lawyer, at one point saying, "I'm going to have to step in and defend myself."

Frustrated, the judge told Diamond he was inclined to rule "no bond" but would give Diamond and his lawyer a day to get their act together.

Diamond is back in court Friday. The judge advised him to listen to his attorney and remain quiet.

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