Black Star News Editorial
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Governor Kathy Hochul (above) with NY AG Letitia James. And Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (below middle) . A tale of two governors—and two different responses to allegations involving powerful universities.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has demonstrated what leadership looks like when serious allegations involving a powerful university collide with troubling questions about law enforcement, prosecutors, and institutional accountability.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer should be watching.
On October 1, Hochul appointed New York Attorney General Letitia James special prosecutor to oversee the criminal investigation into allegations by a former Cornell University student, identified as Jane Doe, that she was drugged and sexually assaulted by fraternity members in 2024.
The allegations have not been proven in a criminal proceeding, and the accused have denied wrongdoing. But Hochul recognized the larger issue: when serious questions arise about whether institutions entrusted with protecting the public adequately performed their duties, public confidence may require independent scrutiny.
Hochul said Jane Doe had been “failed” by people and institutions that were supposed to protect her.
Bravo, Governor Hochul.
Now what about Cassandra Fameux?
Fameux’s allegations are different from Jane Doe’s. But they are just as egregious—and the institutional questions surrounding her case demand the same kind of independent scrutiny now being brought to Cornell.
Fameux, a Haitian immigrant and Black woman, alleges that from 2014 through 2023 she was “poisoned” with powerful antipsychotic medications, including Risperdal, Invega Sustenna, and Abilify, by her now ex-husband, anesthesiologist Dr. Paul Gregory St. Claire, and psychiatrist Dr. Dominic Barberio.
What makes the case impossible for Michigan officials simply to ignore is that there is also a substantial documentary record—and police already investigated and recommended criminal prosecution of Dr. St. Claire, (below) which goes way beyond what happened at Cornell.
In Michigan, as in New York, the prosecutor declined to press charges.
Several psychiatrists concluded that Fameux did not suffer from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Dr. Rita Aouad, who testified in the couple’s divorce, said she suffers from severe PTSD as a result of an abusive marriage to St. Claire. Yet Fameux says she received monthly injections of the antipsychotic Invega Sustenna for years.
There are also extraordinary discrepancies concerning who administered those injections.
University of Michigan Health Sparrow medical records reviewed by Black Star News identify Barberio or nurses in connection with the injections. Yet Barberio testified under oath during Fameux’s divorce proceedings that St. Claire himself administered approximately 90 percent of the injections to his wife in Barberio’s office. St. Claire, by contrast, testified that he administered injections only “occasionally.” He claimed his wife asked him to inject her because “it hurt less,” in front of Barberio, who denied this to police.
Which account is accurate?
And why was an anesthesiologist allegedly administering his wife’s antipsychotic injections in a psychiatrist’s office in the first place, and who allegedly fabricated the records?
Those are questions for investigators—not journalists—to ultimately resolve.
Then there is the University of Michigan.
St. Claire’s employment ended on February 28, 2024. The university and St. Claire entered into a nondisclosure agreement.
St. Claire later testified under oath in divorce proceedings that University of Michigan Health Sparrow told him he had been terminated because of a HIPAA violation. Couldn’t the NDA be seen as an attempt to shield possible criminal conduct?
Separately, Fameux’s social worker at Lansing, MI.-based Community Mental Health (CMH), Linda Wenzel, recorded in her notes that Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) told her in July 2024 that St. Claire had altered Fameux’s medical records and the agency characterized the conduct as “criminal” and that it should be reported to police. Fameux, accompanied by Wenzel, filed a criminal complaint Sept. 10, 2024 with the Meridian Township Police Department.
If these accounts are accurate, what exactly did the university know when it entered into the NDA? What did it investigate? What did it report to regulators or law enforcement?
And what exactly is being kept confidential?
Previously, Black Star News reported the university had disciplined St. Claire on numerous occasions for sexual harassment allegations from co-workers and a patient.
Michigan taxpayers deserve answers.
But the most compelling reason for Governor Whitmer to demand independent scrutiny is even simpler:
Police already investigated. Police recommended prosecution. The report can be viewed on www.DrStClaireEvidence.com
After six months of investigating Fameux’s alleged “poisoning” complaint, Detective Ian Mandernack forwarded his report to Ingham County Prosecutor John Dewane recommending a domestic-assault charge against St. Claire. Dewane (below) declined prosecution.
According to Fameux, the prosecutor never interviewed her.
In reviewing the records, Black Star News determined that Dr. St. Claire may have also lied to or misled the detective who investigated the case, which could also constitute another crime not yet handled by the police. On March 10, 2025, Det. Mandernack, spoke by telephone with Dr. St. Claire. “I advised Paul as to the nature of my call,” Det. Mandernack wrote, in the report, referring to Dr. St. Claire by his first name. “Paul indicated that he was familiar with the incident to which I was referring. He advised me that LARA had already concluded their investigation of the incident, and cleared him of any wrongdoing or malpractice.”
How can this be true if LARA confirmed to Wenzel in July 2024 that St. Claire altered Fameux’s records? Dr. St. Claire himself testified that the University of Michigan fired him for HIPAA violation? Meridian Township Police Chief Richard Grillo did not respond to an inquiry about this matter.
So, why shouldn’t an independent authority examine why police recommended prosecution and why the prosecutor rejected that recommendation?
That is where the contrast between New York and Michigan becomes impossible to ignore.
In New York, questions arose about the original investigation and prosecutorial response to Jane Doe’s allegations. Hochul concluded that public confidence required independent intervention and appointed the state’s Attorney General as special prosecutor.
In Michigan, police themselves investigated Fameux’s allegations and recommended a criminal charge. The prosecutor declined.
Meanwhile, a major public university health system had entered into an NDA with the physician at the center of the allegations.
Where is Governor Whitmer? Ironically, way before the Cornell case made national news again this week, on Sept. 15, 2026, Black Star News published an editorial under the headline, “Governor Whitmer Must Break Michigan’s Conspiracy Of Silence In Dr. St. Claire Alleged Wife-Poisoning Case.”
There are still more unanswered questions.
Fameux alleges that the drugging was connected to Dr. St. Claire’s scheme to gain control of marital assets while she was impaired. On February 20, 2018, she signed an agreement transferring all marital assets—millions of dollars and two homes—to St. Claire.
However, the court did not appoint a Guardian Ad Litem prior to Fameux signing the JOSM, as required under Michigan law, meaning the agreement would be void.
Black Star News reported in November 2025 that St. Claire, his divorce lawyer Jessica Larson, and divorce judge Carol N. Koenig (above) allegedly fabricated evidence to make it appear a GAL had been appointed, and the judge upheld the agreement. Black Star News reported this alleged crime to Whitmer, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, Prosecutor Dewane, and federal law enforcement agencies. Larson’s law firm shut down six months later.
University of Michigan leadership also has questions to answer.
The University of Michigan under President Domenico Grasso has demonstrated that it knows how to retain outside investigators when controversies threaten institutional credibility. It spent millions of dollars on an outside firm to investigate its football program after it fired football coach Sherrone Moore for having an affair with a subordinate.
Why shouldn’t allegations involving a woman, powerful psychiatric medications, alleged fabricated medical records, and a former University of Michigan Health Sparrow physician receive comparable urgency?
Incoming University President Cybele Raver will inherit these questions. But this matter is now bigger than the university.
Governor Whitmer should call upon the appropriate Michigan authorities to establish a genuinely independent investigation with meaningful subpoena power into the entire Fameux matter.
Investigators should determine what diagnoses supported Fameux’s psychiatric treatment; who prescribed and administered the medications; whether appropriate prescriptions existed; whether her medical records were improperly accessed or altered, as LARA reportedly confirmed; if so, why he still holds a medical license; what University of Michigan Health Sparrow knew; why St. Claire’s employment ended; what the NDA covers; what LARA discovered; why Meridian Township Police recommended prosecution; and why the Ingham County prosecutor declined to charge.
The disputed Guardian Ad Litem and JOSM issue should also be independently examined.
Let the evidence determine the conclusions.
Meanwhile, since Dr. St. Claire was allegedly fraudulently awarded 100% marital assets, Fameux has no health insurance coverage and can’t afford to monitor
her brain tumor or purchase insulin.
There is one final reason why independent intervention is necessary.
Black Star News has reported on the Fameux matter for approximately three years. In July 2024, after our reporting raised questions about his conduct, St. Claire filed a defamation lawsuit against Black Star News, its publisher Milton Allimadi, and Fameux—an action we regard as retaliatory and an attempt to muzzle the publication and the journalist continuing to investigate the case.
St. Claire obtained a default after Allimadi’s discovery responses were submitted 48 hours late after he discovered that years’ worth of email messages exchanged between him and St. Claire’s lawyers—and demanded in discovery—had been deleted after an apparent criminal hack, which he reported to law enforcement. Since there was no trial on the actual evidence outlined above, St. Claire was awarded $12.22 million after the default, which Allimadi has already moved to set aside.
Even St. Claire’s “lawsuit” deserves review: He has either admitted during the divorce to what he claimed was defamatory in his complaint, or he has been presented with unimpeachable evidence.
He claimed Black Star News falsely reported he was being investigated by police, when the same police recommended his prosecution; he claimed Allimadi falsely reported that LARA was investigating him, when in fact LARA interviewed Allimadi as part of the investigation and told Wenzel that he committed a crime by changing Fameux’s records, according to her notes, which Allimadi has; he claimed Ms. Fameux was the one who asked him to inject her “occasionally,” in front of Barberio, who denied that and said St. Claire injected his wife 90% of the time; he claimed in his lawsuit Allimadi falsely reported he was having an affair with a married nurse at the hospital, then admitted to it during the divorce; a video of St. Claire in the back seats of his car with the nurse was provided to his lawyer Chris Newberg of Grand Rapids, MI.-based Kuiper Kraemer PC and is posted on www.DrStClaireEvidence.com
So where is the defamation?
While St. Claire may be abusing the court to prolong avoidance of accountability over his alleged egregious conduct toward Fameux, what is Governor Whitmer’s excuse?
Indeed, the extraordinary disparity between the response in New York and Michigan makes scrutiny more urgent.
Governor Hochul did not wait for every allegation in the Cornell case to be proven before demanding an independent examination.
Scrutiny is how allegations are tested. New York’s governor acted.
Michigan’s governor remains silent.
