Black Star News Editorial
Black Star News editorial says University of Michigan President Grasso (above) can no longer hide behind the NDA.
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Students, faculty, staff and alumni of the University of Michigan must demand that President Domenico Grasso and the Board of Regents revoke the nondisclosure agreement the university executed with former employee Dr. Paul Gregory St. Claire.
They must demand this now—not after incoming President Dr. Cybele Raver takes office.
The University of Michigan cannot simply punt this responsibility to its next president. Doing so would be odious, but consistent with the way the university’s leadership has handled the allegations of Cassandra Fameux for the past three years: by remaining silent and, when pressed, hiding behind bureaucracy and an NDA.
This is not an ordinary personnel dispute.
Fameux, a Haitian-born immigrant, has alleged that her former husband, Dr. St. Claire, a former University of Michigan Health Sparrow anesthesiologist, conspired with psychiatrist Dr. Dominic Barberio to have her falsely diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and subjected her to antipsychotic medication for nine years from 2014 to 2023.
They are not allegations that can simply be dismissed as the claims of a disgruntled former spouse.
Several independent psychiatrists subsequently concluded that Fameux was not schizophrenic including Dr. Rita Aouad who testified on her behalf in the couple’s 2023-2025 divorce, stating that instead she suffers from severe PTSD as a result of an abusive marriage. A secretly-recorded September 2023 conversation provided to police also captured Dr. Barberio acknowledging that Fameux was not schizophrenic.
Fameux alleged while she was under the influence of the drugs Dr. St. Claire coerced her into signing a Judgment of Separate Maintenance (JOSM) on February 20, 2018 that transferred 100% of marital assets–millions of dollars and two homes–to him. The JOSM is apparently void since the court never appointed a Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) for Fameux as required by Michigan law.
Yet the court has enforced it for eight years.
And after investigating Fameux’s complaint of alleged “poisoning”, Meridian Township Police on April 10, 2025 referred the matter to the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office and recommended criminal prosecution of Dr. St. Claire for domestic assault.
The prosecutor ultimately declined to prosecute. That decision does not erase the police investigation or the recommendation.
There are other issues that will be reviewed in Black Star News’ series of editorials that make the university’s silence even more troubling.
Dr. St. Claire. Photo: Family.
Fameux alleged that Dr. St. Claire accessed and altered her medical records. In divorce-court testimony, St. Claire himself testified that the university forced him to resign after she complained to administrators about his alleged access to and alteration of her records.
Copies of Fameux’s hospital medical records reviewed by Black Star News lists Dr. Barberio as having injected Fameux in his office every month with Invega Sustenna from 2017 to 2021. It turns out according to divorce court testimony that it was Dr. St. Claire who injected his wife in Dr. Barberio’s office, according to divorce court testimony.
If a physician improperly accessed or altered a patient’s medical records, a HIPAA violation, that is not merely a private marital dispute. It raises obvious questions about patient safety, professional ethics and potentially criminal conduct.
So what did the University of Michigan know? When did it know it?
Did it investigate? What did that investigation find?
Why, after terminating St. Claire on February 28, 2024, did the university execute a nondisclosure agreement with him rather than publicly explain the circumstances surrounding his departure?
The university has never adequately answered those questions.
Instead, the NDA has become a wall behind which the institution can retreat. That wall should come down.
The university’s conduct is particularly difficult to reconcile with the principles of “zero tolerance” that President Grasso has publicly invoked in another context.
When football coach Sherrone Moore was fired following allegations that he had an affair with a subordinate, the university made public statements about misconduct and accountability. It also commissioned a multimillion-dollar investigation into the culture surrounding the football program.
Why does that principle appear to operate so differently when the allegations concern a physician, his wife and alleged manipulation of medical records?
Why was there a multimillion-dollar investigation of football culture by Jenner & Block LLP while the university has not publicly disclosed whether it conducted a comparable investigation into the allegations surrounding St. Claire?
Is the message that misconduct involving football warrants institutional transparency while allegations involving an immigrant woman can be buried behind an NDA?
That is precisely the question the University of Michigan must answer.
And the university’s treatment of Black Star News’ FOIA request only deepens the concern.
On October 15, 2025, Black Star News, filed a FOIA request concerning the Fameux matter and paid the university’s required $25 fee. Nearly a year later, the requested records still have not been produced.
On at least seven occasions, after deadlines established by the university expired, the FOIA officer simply established another deadline—often months into the future.
That is not transparency. It is delay.
This delay becomes particularly troubling when the institution simultaneously points to an NDA as a reason it cannot discuss the former employee.
President Grasso and the Board of Regents therefore have a simple choice.
They can continue the silence.
Or they can demonstrate that the University of Michigan’s commitment to accountability means something beyond press releases and football scandals.
They should revoke the NDA to the fullest extent legally possible, conduct a transparent review of the university’s handling of Fameux’s allegations of medical abuse, and explain what the institution knew about the alleged alteration of medical records and what it did about it.
They should not wait for Cybele Raver to take office.
Raver should not have to inherit a problem that the current administration has had years to confront.
The Board of Regents, which selected Raver as the university’s next president, has a responsibility now.
So does President Grasso.
This is the first in a four-part series of editorials questioning the University of Michigan’s NDA with Dr. St. Claire.
