Today's Daily Schadenfreude: Keith Wasserstrom

Well, this is getting to be fun.

I started covering disgraced Hollywood City Commissioner Keith Wasserstrom just last week, but he's having an even tougher go of it this week. Seems he's asking for help from his pals via e-mail, just as Blowin' Bob Allen did not too long ago ... but he didn't mean to let everyone know he was asking for help. Whoops.

Earlier this week, Wasserstrom sent an e-mail to family and friends asking them to write letters of support to Broward Circuit Judge Joel Lazarus, who will determine Wasserstrom's sentence.

[...]

The e-mail was sent to hundreds of people who were on Wasserstrom's contact list and was not meant to be public, said Todd Michaels, Wasserstrom's defense attorney.

In the message, Wasserstrom makes comments about the charges against him and the jury's decision to find him guilty, writing in the introduction that "I have been convicted of two felonies (something to do with filling out forms improperly -- neither the jury nor I am sure exactly what I did wrong -- no joke)."

The lighthearted tone in the letter was meant to bolster the spirits up of the people Wasserstrom sent the note to, Michaels said.

"He is not taking this lightly at all. Keith is a very optimistic and good-natured person," Michaels said. "He's done a lot of good for a lot of people in the community. He is trying to remain upbeat for his friends and family, who are going through one of the roughest periods of their lives."

But Wasserstrom's light-hearted jab at the jury and the charges against him might not go over so well with a judge, said Bob Dekle, a University of Florida legal skills professor and former prosecutor.

While asking for supportive letters is common practice for defendants after a conviction, Wasserstrom's e-mail shows "a tremendous amount of brassiness" and could cast him in a bad light, Dekle said.

"A lawyer who had a client who did that just might want to tear his hair out," said Dekle, a former prosecutor who worked on the case against serial killer Ted Bundy.

Wasserstrom faces a possible, albeit unlikely, 10-year sentence for his conviction on felony corruption charges, but he believes that supportive e-mails and letters will make any jail time at all "even more remote." Well, good luck with that, Keith. Doesn't help much to piss off the judge.

On the other hand, maybe a hearty Blast Off! congratulations will be some solace. So ... congratulations, Keith! Today's Blast Off! Daily Schadenfreude is for you!