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!

Florida GOP Police Blotter #7: Hollywood city commissioner removed from office after fraud conviction

Finding criminal behavior among Florida Republicans really is like shooting fish in a barrel. It's almost unfair. Except it's not.

Today's addition to the Florida GOP Police Blotter is disgraced and convicted Hollywood city commissioner Keith Wasserstrom, who was removed from office this morning by Governor Charlie Crist.

Wasserstrom was found guilty of two counts of official misconduct Sept. 12 for not fully disclosing his relationship with a sludge-processing firm that eventually won a city contract largely because of his help.

Wasserstrom, 40, is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 2. As a first-time offender, he could get probation, up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine for each of the two counts.

The Broward-Palm Beach New Times has been all over the Wasserstrom story for months now, if not years. And as they recently pointed out, despite the best efforts of the Sun-Sentinel and the Herald, the judge in the latest trial, and even a higher power, Wasserstrom was convicted anyway.

But you had to think that even the jury could see through the farce [defense attorney Milton] Hirsch was creating when he said in his opening statement that Wasserstrom was doing "God's work" for the sewage company. To bolster the obscene idea that the commissioner was on a mission from God, Wasserstrom wore a yarmulke on his head the entire trial. And to make sure the jury got a load of what a family man he is, the former commissioner yanked his kids out of school and made them attend the first day of trial.

"I'm bored," his young son said at one point. "I'd rather be in school."

And so Wasserstrom, who has donated to Republicans in the past*, is out of office and likely headed to jail. Welcome to the Florida GOP Police Blotter, Keith. You're in fine company indeed.

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* Oddly, he also endorsed Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) for Congress in 2006. But, then again, so did Jim Naugle, so that's not saying much ...