Riverside woman gets probation, house arrest in fraud case

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A Riverside woman was sentenced today in Los Angeles to two years of probation, including six months in home detention, for selling phony debt-elimination services to hundreds of distressed homeowners. Tricia Mae Gruber, 44, was also ordered to pay restitution of $1.4 million to victims of the scheme. Gruber pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, admitting that she helped co-defendant James Ignatius "Jim" Diamond operate the scheme between 2010 and 2013. Diamond, 69, also of Riverside was sentenced last month to nearly six years behind bars following his conviction on 30 fraud charges. U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner reminded Gruber that her probationary sentence represented "quite a break" and resulted from her "substantial cooperati