Judge and Jury

Judge Lazarus takes justice into his own hands in the Keith Wasserstrom trial

A A A Comments By Bob Norman Thursday, Sep 13 2007

...continued from page 2

"Excuse me," Lazarus said politely at one point.

The mayor kept talking.

c.stiles

In Lazarus we trust.

More About

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter: Our weekly feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more - minus the newsprint and sent directly to your inbox.

"Excuse me!" Lazarus snarled loudly, at which point a startled Giulianti finally stopped moving her gums.

After her testimony, Giulianti sat outside the courtroom talking on a cell phone about the trial. "I don't know about the prosecutor," she said. "She's real snitty, snippy. I don't think the jury is going to take to her. But Keith's attorney is, I don't know, warm. Much more personable. The judge is scary to me. He's stern... It was disconcerting. I don't want to be the star of the day."

In terms of the prosecution's case, she wasn't. Goldman was the state's gold mine. A bald man with a gray beard and bat-like ears, Uncle Arnold spilled the details about the dirty work done by both him and his nephew, with Maus backing it all up with e-mails and other documents she'd gathered during her two-year investigation.

Maus even got Goldman to admit that one of Wasserstrom's jobs was to go into neighborhoods where Schwing Bioset wanted a contract and solicit people to create an issue by complaining about the smell from sewage — whether it was offensive or not. Talk about an odious occupation.

Even after the scandal hit the news and the company severed ties with them, Wasserstrom kept pressing for money. Goldman testified that Wasserstrom told him, "You shouldn't take less than a million dollars for the work you've done." Half of that, of course, would have gone to Wasserstrom and his law firm.

The prosecutors must have thought Goldman was all they needed — they rested after he was finished. Hirsch, who had promised the jury that Wasserstrom would testify, then rested without putting on a defense.

Then he made the motion for Lazarus to rule on the charges.

Donnelly looked properly dejected after the ruling.

"I was hoping we could at least get it to the jury and let them decide," he told me outside the courtroom.

All hope, however, wasn't lost for the prosecution. Yet.

Still remaining were four official misconduct charges related to public disclosure forms that Wasserstrom filed with his city. This column went to press before the jury's verdict, but I'm betting it'll follow the judge's lead and acquit him.

And that could lead to Wasserstrom's return to the commission. If that happens, he can thank a man named Lazarus for bringing his scandalous and morally bankrupt political career back to life.

Editor's note: Norman bet wrong: The jury convicted Wasserstrom of two counts of official misconduct.

Check out this week's featured ad for News