Cliff Woodards II suggests he's "exercising First Amendment rights" on Facebook.
Outspoken Detroit attorney Cliff Woodards II is again facing a grievance complaint for rude and unprofessional behavior after reportedly getting into a heated argument with a prosecutor and going on to misrepresent what happened on Facebook.
You may remember Woodards for the time he made headlines for questioning a lesbian attorney's choice of underwear in a Facebook post in 2016. "Why you wearing men's draws though?” he wrote, before turning on gay men in the comments: “I'm assuming they poke their booties out because they want them filled. Eeew.”
Or perhaps you know Woodards for the last time the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission filed a complaint against him. The Freep writes:
In 2017, Woodards was reprimanded by the Attorney Discipline Board and ordered to pay $750 after telling a probation agent in Wayne County Circuit Court that she had "angry black woman's syndrome" and "that's why you don't have a husband."
The most recent complaint stems from a case involving a traffic ticket. The Freep reports Woodards mouthed off to a young woman prosecutor when she said she'd need to see his client's driving record to negotiate a plea deal.
Woodards at one point walked within inches of the female prosecutor, pointed his finger in her face and said something to the effect of "You need to back up little girl and know your place," according to the complaint.
He then went on Facebook and lied about what happened, the complaint alleges.
"She lost all maturity and professionalism," Woodards wrote. "She went straight into rat mode, stepped into my personal space and derisively started waving papers directly in my face."
He continued, "Whatever happened to the idea of just shutting up, being quiet and learning the law, at least for a while, before you start arguing with lawyers who have been doing this since you were in high school? . . . Who told these young black women that it's okay to step into a man's personal space and wave objects in his face?"
Woodards declined to comment for the Freep on his most recent questionable post, but he did provide this interesting response for the homophobic one:
“In today’s modern society, social media has often supplanted mainstream traditional media. Occasionally, when this platform is used, questions are raised as to whether the author of the content is functioning as a journalist and therefore exercising First Amendment rights.”
