Does Charlottesville Defendant Chris Cantwell Have a Defense Attorney, or is He being Prosecuted from Both Sides of the Courtroom? Read This Weird Interview

Interview with Charlottesville Defendant Chris Cantwell’s defense lawyer, Elmer R. Woodard III
By Nicholas Stix

In the course of a report I’m doing for VDARE on Charlottesville, I had a bizarre conversation with Cantwell’s defense lawyer, Elmer R. Woodard III, on Friday, September 15. Call it an interview gone wrong, call it worse than nothing. Woodard seemed to think I was his enemy, even though I was making suggestions on how to help his client.

When a defense lawyer has a client who has been demonized by the media, he will typically be very gracious towards any sympathetic reporters, and not be a complete jerk, the way Woodard was.

Woodard was Cantwell’s fourth pick as defense counsel, after the first three refused to defend him, and frankly, he appears to this reporter to be incompetent. He won’t be able to get away with constantly making prosecutors and judges repeat themselves, and speak ever slower, in court. Let’s hope that he’s secretly an ingenious litigator who was hiding his light under a bushel. Otherwise, Christopher Cantwell is screwed.

Note that I deal with difficult people on the telephone all the time, and was once quite successful doing telephone marketing surveys and cold-call telemarketing.

VDARE: Introduction (“Hello, this is Nicholas Stix,” blah, blah, blah).

ERWIII: Hold it. That’s a lot of information you were dumping on me all at once, and I was concentrating on something else. Let’s go over that again slowly.

[N.S.: What would you be concentrating on, besides the person speaking to you on the phone?]

VDARE: (Repeats intro, even slower than the first time.)

ERWIII: I know what you’re talking about.

VDARE: So, I want to find out what the situation is, and also ask about how it was that the judge, Judge Cheryl Higgins, would reverse the lower court judge’s decision to grant your client bond or bail.

ERWIII: What was the first question?

[See how he keeps making me repeat myself?]

VDARE: The first question was generally about the status of the case.

ERWIII: That’s all public record. You’re welcome to look at that.

VDARE: I know that your client has been charged with three felonies. At least that was the last I saw.

ERWIII: Ok.

VDARE: But the other issue was his having his bond revoked, a few hours after it was granted.

ERWIII: Ok.

VDARE: And it seemed to me that the judge was creating a legal standard that doesn’t exist on the books.

ERWIII: You’d really need to ask the judge that.

[He knows damned well that judges never give media interviews about active cases, and most of them don’t give interviews about any cases. Beyond that, he can see that I’m sympathetic to his client, and made a helpful suggestion. Attorneys are acutely aware of whether a reporter is a friend or an enemy—there’s no neutrality here—and usually seek to massage friendly reporters. Elmer R. Woodard III is clearly an exception to the rule.]

VDARE: Have you sought to have her overruled?

ERWIII: That’s none of your business.

VDARE: That’s none of my business?! Well, actually, it is a public matter. If you sought to have Judge Higgins’ ruling overruled, that would be a matter of public record. Yes, that would be my business, and everyone’s business.

ERWIII: Then you need to go and find it out, don’t you?

VDARE: I wonder if you’re Mr. Cantwell’s defense attorney, or a prosecutor.

ERWIII: Well, I can’t help what you wonder about.

VDARE: Ok, so you have no intention of making any statement, or giving me any information about the case.

ERWIII: (Pause.) No!

VDARE: Well, then I guess we have nothing to talk about.

ERWIII: Not really.

VDARE: Goodbye (hits cut-off button).


“The Charlottesville Nightmare: Part I of the VDARE Interview of Unite the Right Demonstration Organizer, Jason Kessler”;

“Have Charlottesville ‘Reporters’ been Co-Conspirators with Violent Communists and Anarchists? The Jason Kessler VDARE Interview, Part II”;

“Charlottesville’s ‘total Communist takeover’: The Jason Kessler VDARE Interview, Part III”;

“Paranoia and PsyOps: The Jason Kessler VDARE Interview, Part IV”; and

“Doing Everything by the Book: The Jason Kessler VDARE Interview, Part V.”