By Milton Allimadi
Dr. Paul Gregory St. Claire, the anesthesiologist who was fired by the University of Michigan Health-Sparrow Lansing after I reported in a series of articles allegations by Cassandra Fameux, his Haitian-immigrant wife, that he “illegally” injected her for several years with unprescribed Invega Sustenna, an antipsychotic drug used to treat schizophrenia — even though she didn’t suffer from the disease — has now admitted multiple times to injecting her, after previously denying it.
Caption: Dr. Paul Gregory St. Claire. Source: Family photo.
At the same time, Dr. St. Claire has filed a frivolous lawsuit against me and Black Star News, where I first published articles about the story, claiming, in addition to other allegations, that I wrote and published false information about the injections and a state investigation into the matter.
Dr. St. Claire had worked at Sparrow Hospital for about 33 years, before he was terminated on February 28, 2024, according to documents from the couple’s ongoing divorce.
Dr. St. Claire, 72, filed his defamation lawsuit in Lansing, Michigan, via Grand Rapids, Michigan-based attorney, Chris Newberg — with Kuiper Kraemer PC — who served me electronically on January 2, 2025.
Dr. St. Claire claims that I falsely reported in Black Star News that he injected Ms. Fameux 44, with Invega Sustenna, and that I also falsely reported that he was being investigated by the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Authority (LARA).
He is seeking $500,000 in compensatory damages and demanding that I remove all the articles I’ve published, and all my commentaries, including videos and radio commentary that I’ve posted related to the Invega Sustenna injections and the LARA investigation.
However, over the last nine months, Dr. St. Claire himself has admitted, on at least three separate occasions, that he did in fact inject his wife with the unprescribed Invega Sustenna, as I reported.
LARA, the licensing and regulatory authority, has also confirmed to me on three separate occasions — including via e-mail messages and during a phone call on October 4, 2024 — that it’s investigating Ms. Fameux’s allegations that her husband injected her with the unprescribed Invega Sustenna. LARA has informed me that two subpoenas have been issued, without naming the targets.
What’s news is that the Meridian Township Police Department, in Michigan, is now also investigating Ms. Fameux’s allegations that Dr. St. Claire injected her with unprescribed Invega Sustenna for more than three-and-a-half years, from July 2017 to February 2021.
Police Chief Grillo confirms investigation of Ms. Fameux’s allegations of illegal injections with Invega Sustenna by Dr. St. Claire.
Accompanied by a state agency employee, Ms. Fameux filed a police complaint against Dr. St. Claire on September 10, 2024. Meridian Township police chief, Rick Grillo, confirmed to me via e-mail messages multiple times that the investigation is ongoing.
Ms. Fameux claimed Dr. St. Claire was motivated by his desire for financial gain. She alleged, according to court papers filed by her divorce lawyer, that he coerced her into signing a separate maintenance judgment that amounted to a post-nuptial agreement while she was under the influence of the Invega Sustenna and Banztropine. The Invega Sustenna injections were so debilitative, Ms. Fameux said, that they sometimes left her numb and unable to speak, sometimes feeling as if she’d had a stroke. Dr. Dominic Barberio, a psychiatrist, colleague of Dr. St. Claire’s at Sparrow, and alleged accomplice, prescribed the Banztropine to relax her muscles and enable her to speak.
Ms. Fameux alleged the separate maintenance agreement, signed on February 20, 2018, transferred about 90% of the marital assets to Dr. St. Claire, including millions of dollars, in addition to the couple’s two homes.
The agreement also gave Dr. St. Claire advantage in custody over the couple’s then minor three children by naming Dr. Barberio as the person who would determine Ms. Fameux’s mental fitness for co-parenting.
Still, the couple continued to live together, and Dr. St. Claire and Dr. Barberio continued medicating Ms. Fameux. Dr. St. Claire eventually began a romantic relationship with a married Filipina nurse at Sparrow.
Dr. St. Claire’s most recent admission to injecting Ms. Fameux with the unprescribed Invega Sustenna was when he took the stand on December 11, 2024 in the couple’s ongoing divorce case, presided over by Judge Carol N. Koenig, in the Ingham County 30th Judicial Circuit Court, Lansing, Michigan.
Dr. St. Claire’s courtroom admission could potentially expose U Michigan Health-Sparrow Lansing to liability.
When I first reported Ms. Fameux’s allegations that her husband injected her with unprescribed Invega Sustenna to coerce her into signing the agreement, and that she claimed she wasn’t schizophrenic, Dr. St. Claire’s divorce attorney, Jessica Larson of Mallory, Lapka, Scott & Selin, Pllc, in Lansing, Michigan, denied the allegations. In light of Dr. St. Claire’s recent admissions, it now turns out that it was he and his lawyer, Ms. Larson, who disseminated false information to me — claiming Dr. St. Claire hadn’t injected Ms. Fameux.
Dr. St. Claire’s defamation lawsuit against me and Black Star News is therefore a naked attempt to suppress and prevent the publication of the truth about his alleged egregious conduct.
Ms. Fameux was injected at least once a month with Invega Sustenna from July 11, 2017 to February 5, 2021, Sparrow hospital records I obtained show. She was also administered several other drugs orally.
Ms. Fameux alleged, as I previously reported in Black Star News, that Dr. St. Claire first had his friend and Sparrow Hospital colleague, Dr. Barberio, intentionally falsely diagnose her with schizophrenia, paving the way for the Invega Sustenna injections.
She also outlined these allegations against Dr. St. Claire and Dr. Barberio, in an October 30, 2023 affidavit of criminal complaint she sent to the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, Mark Totten. “I have been treated very cruelly and inhumanely by both my husband and Dr. Barberio,” Ms. Fameux’s Oct. 30, 2023 affidavit to U.S. Attorney Totten stated. “My basic human rights have been violated. Dr. Barberio and my husband committed malpractice and fraud, they misdiagnosed me and mistreated me. Dr. Barberio and my husband inflicted serious bodily and mental harm on me.”
“Invega Sustenna is referred to as a chemical lobotomy for a good reason,” Ms. Fameux’s affidavit added. Among the several impacts Ms. Fameux listed were, “…worsened memory, slower thinking, chronical depression, irregular heartbeat, diabetes, weight gain, liver problems due to weight gain, high level of prolactin which contributed to my brain tumor in 2021,” the affidavit read. Ms. Fameux had a loop recorder inserted in her chest in March 2023 to monitor her heart rate. She has to get an MRI every six month to monitor the tumor. She also needed a surgical procedure — endometrial ablation — that left her sterile, she said. The procedure was performed at Sparrow Hospital, she said.
Sparrow was acquired by the University of Michigan system in 2023 and it’s now officially University of Michigan Health-Sparrow Lansing.
Ms. Fameux’s current divorce attorney, Timothy P. Young, of Grua, Freeman, Tupper & Young, Plc, in Lansing, Michigan, filed court papers in the ongoing divorce proceedings, on October 22, 2024 asking Judge Koenig to set-aside the separate maintenance agreement based on alleged fraud by Dr. St. Claire.
Ms. Fameux is the defendant in the divorce case. Even though the separate maintenance agreement was signed in 2018, Dr. St. Claire didn’t file for divorce until August 23, 2023, shortly after his wife confronted him with a video recording of an alleged intimate relationship in the back seat of his 2006 silver Toyota Highlander with his mistress, the married nurse. The mistress worked in close proximity to Dr. St. Claire as a pre-operation nurse, Ms. Fameux said.
Dr. St. Claire and Ms. Fameux met in 2002 when she was 22, and volunteered and worked at Sparrow. Dr. St. Clair, who is 28 years older than her, was a “practicing anesthesiologist, and the two started to develop a friendly relationship. Defendant was awestruck by the plaintiff — he showered her with compliments, made her feel special, gained her trust, and ultimately used that trust to begin grooming her,” according to the motion to set-aside the separate maintenance agreement.
Later that year, Ms. Fameux became pregnant. “When defendant informed plaintiff of the good news, plaintiff responded as though this information was anything but good news, and demanded that defendant have an abortion,” the motion stated.
“Defendant refused, so plaintiff offered defendant $80,000 to have an abortion, and defendant refused again,” the motion stated, and added that thereafter Dr. St. Claire started a campaign to harass and threaten Ms. Fameux.
Ms. Fameux had the child and when a paternity test confirmed that Dr. St. Claire was the father, he started providing some child support. It was only after they’d had two children together with a third on the way that the couple married in 2009. (Dr. St. Claire denied that he offered Ms. Fameux $80,000 to abort the pregnancy, when he testified December 11, 2024, and when he was deposed by Mr. Young).
Ms. Fameux’s motion to set-aside the separate maintenance agreement.
Dr. St. Claire, according to Mr. Young’s October 22 court filing, took Ms. Fameux, in 2017, to “see his friend, the psychiatrist, and defendant began being administered drugs for a condition she did not have — schizophrenia. Dr. Barberio later admitted that defendant was not, ever, a schizophrenic.”
Ms. Fameux was injected with doses of Invega Sustenna and Benztropine ranging up to 234–256 mg., according to the court filing. “These drugs incapacitated defendant to the extent she didn’t know the why or what was happening,” the filing stated, and added that the drugs “impaired her ability to fully understand and communicate; something defendant tried to convey during the mediation, i.e., that she didn’t know what was going on and what she was being asked to sign,” the filing stated, in reference to the 2018 separate maintenance agreement.
“Subsequently, plaintiff admitted to administering this medication to defendant, even admitting that they utilized samples to avoid the necessity of proper prescriptions, thereby making it impossible to verify the doses administered,” the motion stated.
“The judgment of separate maintenance was entered while the defendant was without clear mind, under duress, and contrary to the necessary finding of fact, i.e., the marriage had been preserved,” the motion further stated.
Since the couple continued to live together, as husband and wife, the motion stated: “The judgment of separate maintenance did not divide the marital estate; it continued to grow from the moment the action was filed through the filing of the subsequent 2023 divorce action. The judgment of separate maintenance was not enforced or observed by either party from the time of its entry to the filing of the 2023 divorce action, and when it was entered, it was not equitable — even more so today.”
“The Invega Sustenna shots plaintiff administered to defendant continued until 2021 and only stopped because defendant had developed a brain tumor and diabetes as a result of the drugs being given to her,” the motion added, referring to the same ailments Ms. Fameux outlined in her October 30, 2023 complaint to U.S. Attorney Totten.
As I previously reported, Robin Omer, the lawyer who represented Ms. Fameux at the time she signed the separate maintenance agreement — and who was paid by Dr. St. Claire — had once been the law partner of Jane Radner, who was Dr. St. Claire’s lawyer in his 2003 divorce from his late second wife, Dr. Marcy Street, whom Dr. St. Claire also claimed had mental health problems, court records show.
Ms. Fameux was unaware of the apparent conflict Mr. Omer had, until I informed her, after I read court papers from the 2003 divorce.
What’s more, Melissa Leckie, the guardian ad litem appointed by the court for Ms. Fameux didn’t sign the 2018 separate maintenance agreement’s signature page. Her signature is attached on an additional page of the document. Curiously, that page has the same page number — page 17–as the page where the rest of the signatures appear. The actual signature page bears the signatures of: Judge Janelle Lawless; Dr. St. Claire; Larson (previously Jessica L. Waite); Omer; and Ms. Fameux.
Both Mr. Omer and Ms. Leckie never responded to my e-mail and phone messages seeking comment. Ms. Leckie didn’t even participate in the mediation, according to the motion to set-aside the agreement which was drafted by Ms. Fameux’s lawyer, Young.
Melissa Leckie, Ms. Fameux’s guardian ad litem, didn’t sign the signature page of the separate maintenance agreement.
(In January 2024, after an altercation between Ms. Fameux and Dr. St. Claire at the marital home, Judge Koenig appointed Erica G. Terranova as guardian ad litem. Ms. Fameux has said she doesn’t need a guardian ad litem and that it only perpetuates Dr. St. Claire’s “false narrative” that she’s schizophrenic even though his alleged accomplice Dr. Barberio has already said she’s not. Two mental health experts have also said Ms. Fameux doesn’t need a guardian ad litem. Dr. Barberio admitted Ms. Fameux wasn’t schizophrenic in a recorded conversation in September 2023; she played the audio recording to the police on September 10, 2024 and later provided them with a copy. The current psychiatrist Ms. Fameux sees regularly, who works for a state agency, has also ruled out schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Additionally, Ms. Fameux said: “Dr. Randall Haugen, a psychologist appointed by Judge Koenig also ruled out schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.” Ms. Fameux and Dr. St. Claire share custody of their minor child and they both have separate residences now).
Judge Koenig denied the motion to set-aside the separate maintenance judgment. Ms. Fameux says she plans to appeal the decision.
Judge Carol N. Koenig. Source: cc.ingham.org
Judge Koenig also denied Ms. Fameux’s motion for attorney fees. Ms. Fameux says she was a stay at home mom for 22 years — taking care of the couple’s three children and Dr. St. Claire’s two older daughters from his late second wife — while her husband was the monied spouse. She said she nursed Dr. St. Claire’s mother to health — when none of her family members wanted to do so — after she’d suffered two strokes. She said she also nursed Dr. St. Claire himself when he was diagnosed with diverticulitis, when he had a colostomy bag, after the separate maintenance agreement was signed.
Ms. Fameux said she’s dipped into her retirement money to the tune of several thousands of dollars to fund her divorce lawyers. She claims Dr. St. Claire is trying to financially starve her into an adverse settlement agreement. Dr. St. Claire, through his attorney Ms. Larson, offered to settle their case by paying $3,814 monthly spousal support until 2028, and a lumpsum payment of $50,000. (Ms. Fameux says even though Dr. St. Claire ruined her health with the Invega Sustenna injections, he still deducts $1,100 per month from her $3,814 spousal support which he says is to cover her insurance).
Judge Koenig has so far treated the matter as an ordinary divorce case even though Dr. St. Claire has now admitted to injecting Ms. Fameux with the unprescribed Invega Sustenna, for a disease that his alleged collaborator has said she never had.
Ms. Fameux was injected with Invega Sustenna in Dr. Barberio’s office at Sparrow Hospital over a 42-month period beginning July 11, 2017, documents show. Charts listing the dates of the Invega Sustenna shots, with the names of the physicians administering them and dosages, were maintained in Dr. Barberio’s computer. Dr. Barberio’s name is shown as having administered some of the shots while others were given by a “historical provider.”
Another set of documents provided to Ms. Fameux by Sparrow lists Dr. Barberio and his medical assistant, Stacey Bumbalough, as the two people who’d administer the injections. Ms. Fameux believes, in some cases, the dosages were altered, to show a low amount of 39 mg.
Ms. Fameux has alleged that it was actually her husband Dr. St. Claire, and Dr. Barberio’s medical assistants, Ms. Bumbalough, and Paula Ackley, who were the only ones who injected her in Dr. Baberio’s office. This means that both the documents maintained by Dr. Barberio on his computer, and the records provided by Sparrow to Ms. Fameux, were falsified, since Dr. St. Claire’s name doesn’t appear on either as having injected his wife even once in Dr. Barberio’s office.
If true, this could also mean that Dr. St. Claire may have perjured himself when he testified in court on December 11, 2024 before Judge Koenig that Dr. Barberio also injected Ms. Fameux in his office.
Dr. St. Claire testified that he injected Ms. Fameux in Dr. Barberio’s office on a “couple of occasions” after she asked him to do because he was an anesthesiologist and it wouldn’t “hurt as much” when he did.
Ms. Fameux consistently alleged that the only time Dr. Barberio ever injected her was in the couple’s marital home, in Okemos, a suburb of Lansing, Michigan. Whenever Dr. St. Claire was upset at her, he’d phone Dr. Barberio to come over to inject her with the unprescribed Invega Sustenna as “punishment,” she claimed. Dr. St. Claire documented these home visits in his own hand-written notes. The hand-writing matches the ones in the notes he wrote, claiming his second wife was also paranoid, documents from his 2003 divorce show.
Dr. St. Claire’s hand-written notes documenting one of Dr. Barberio’s home visits to inject Ms. Fameux.
“Wed May 27th 2020 — Barberio comes to house for shot 1/2 of 334 = 117 mg INVEGA,” according to one of Dr. St. Claire’s hand-written notes. Ms. Fameux alleged that one such “punishment” injection was for failing to cook for Dr. St. Claire’s two adult daughters from his late second wife, Dr. Street.
Prior to the December 11, 2024 court testimony before Judge Koenig, Dr. St. Claire had already admitted on two previous occasions to injecting his wife with Invega Sustenna. One time was when Ms. Fameux’s divorce lawyer Mr. Young deposed him on October 2, 2024, and; the other time was in his written interrogatory response dated April 11, 2024 to Ms. Fameux’s divorce lawyer at the time, Benjamin Fulger, who’s with Lansing, Michigan-based Crockett Law office.
On each occasion — as when he testified in court on December 11, 2024 before Judge Koenig — Dr. St. Claire claimed Ms. Fameux was the one who’d ask him to inject her, to lessen the pain. “Occasionally in Dr. Barberio’s office, when it was time for her monthly intramuscular injection, Cassie would request that I inject her instead (sic) Dr. Barberio or his aid (sic) as she claimed it didn’t hurt her as much when I injected it,” Dr. St. Claire wrote in the April 11, 2024 interrogatory response.
Dr. St. Claire admits that he did inject Ms. Fameux with Invega Sustenna after previously denying it to me through his lawyer, Larson.
When Dr. St. Claire was deposed on October 2, 2024 by Ms. Fameux’s lawyer, Mr. Young, this is how he explained the injections, according to the transcript: “The only time I have ever injected her is in the presence of her psychiatrist and she asked explicitly, ‘Greg, can you inject me because you don’t make it hurt so much.’ That can be verified by Dr. Barberio.”
This is a remarkable admission, considering the sharp language Dr. St. Claire’s defamation lawyer Mr. Newberg used to denounce me, in his complaint.
During the December 11, 2024 court testimony before Judge Koenig, Dr. St. Claire, in addition to saying once again that it was Ms. Fameux who asked him to inject her, also claimed it was she and Dr. Barberio who came up with the schizophrenia diagnosis, between the two of them. He claimed he’d always accompanied his wife to the injections to offer moral support and lessen her “trauma.”
There is also remarkable similarity between Dr. St. Claire’s claims that both Ms. Fameux, his current wife, and Dr. Street, his late second wife, were both mentally ill. His first wife, a European, reportedly visited relatives in Europe many years ago and never returned. That first wife didn’t respond to my message seeking comment.
In an application for a personal protection order (ppo), dated December 19, 2003, Dr. St. Claire claimed Dr. Street, his late second wife, “is being treated for depression and is taking medications and has a chronic history of medication use for anxiety disorder and mood swings.” He also claimed she “is a pathological liar, has an assaultive nature, has anger problem…” His application was denied as Dr. Street had already been granted one against him.
Dr. St. Claire denied there were similarities between the allegations he made of mental illness by Ms. Fameux and Dr. Street, when Mr. Young asked him during deposition on September 25, 2024. He claimed Ms. Fameux’s illness was much worse than Dr. Street’s. “So there were times, yes, she was thinking certain things, but that’s not the kind of paranoia where you’re really — no, she was never like crazy-crazy,” Dr. St. Claire said, of his late second wife, to contrast her from Ms. Fameux, according to the transcript.
However, during the 2003 divorce, Nan Elizabeth Casey, who represented Dr. Street, introduced evidence to suggest that it was actually Dr. St. Claire who suffered from mental health issues, court records show. “Testimony will also be presented showing that defendant St. Claire was in a mental institution for over three weeks some years ago. His behavior is not only bizarre but inappropriate,” the brief added.
Dr. St. Claire’s and Dr. Street’s housekeeper, Shelley Van Epps, filed a sworn affidavit dated December 4, 2003, stating that she’d be willing to testify in court to alleged “bizarre” and “frightening” behavior by Dr. St. Claire.
On November 13, 2003, while she was at work in the couple’s home, “Dr. St. Claire was eating cat food and swigging wine from a gallon jug. This occurred at approximately 11 a.m.,” Ms. Van Epps’ affidavit stated. “Dr. St. Claire asked me numerous personal questions, including ‘does your husband rub your clitoris, I mean back?’” the document stated, and added: “Dr. St. Claire also told me repeatedly that he was horny and asked me if I was horny.”
“That he also asked whether my husband would ever kill me and the children?” Ms. Van Epps’ affidavit also stated.
The affidavit concluded, “I was frightened by his behavior which I found bizarre and unexplainable…That I called Dr. Street and explained what had happened for reason that I was fearful of his behavior and afraid for Dr. Street and her children.”
Shelley Van Epps’ affidavit.
On July 27, 2004, Ms. Casey, filed court papers questioning Dr. St. Claire’s fitness for parenting of the couple’s then minor two daughters, ages 11 and 12 at the time.
“As previously discussed in this brief, defendant is a habitual adulterer and continues to share inappropriate details of his sexual escapades (once telling the girls that he had an affair with his Haitian girlfriend because she asked to have sex with him first) and the divorce with his minor daughters,” the “Plaintiff’s Trial Brief,” filed by Ms. Casey read. “Defendant St. Claire has proven that he cannot be honest nor committed in any relationship,” the brief stated.
(One of the claims by Dr. St. Claire in his defamation lawsuit against me and Black Star News is that I falsely reported that he was an alleged adulterer).
Ms. Fameux’s lawyer, Mr. Young, asked Dr. St. Claire about Ms. Van Epps’ affidavit during the October 2, 2024 deposition.
Over his own lawyer Larson’s objection, Dr. St. Claire, according to the transcript, said: “Yeah, but anyhow, I remember her saying that I ate dog food. I don’t deny that I tried dog food a couple times, a little piece of it, and when she asked me why, I said because I’m hungry, and maybe what she thought I said was that ‘I’m horny.’ I’d joke and say ‘hungry,’ but she might interpret it as ‘horny.’ Yes, sir, I have tried my dog food to see what it tastes like, a little pellet. I don’t deny that. I don’t eat it for lunch.”
Ms. Van Epps’ affidavit actually referred to cat food, court records show.
Dr. St. Claire denied “swigging” wine from a gallon jug; he said he didn’t even own such a jug. He also denied that he asked Ms. Van Epps if her husband rubbed her clitoris. “I can’t speak for her, but I know I’ve never asked someone something like that. That’s totally inappropriate,” Dr. St. Claire said, according to the transcript.
Mr. Young asked Dr. St. Claire about Ms. Fameux’s own deposition testimony that he was “obsessed” with sex. “No, sir. I think most people hopefully have some sort of sexual desire,” Dr. St. Claire said.
During the September 25, 2024 deposition Dr. St. Claire had been asked about an incident involving two nurses in the operating room. He said they’d just put a patient to sleep and one nurse was bent over tying the patient’s arm down, while another nurse was standing behind her.
“I bumped her arm on purpose to make it look like it’s an accident where my hand hit the back of her hand,” Dr. St. Claire testified. “Now her hand went and touched the nurse in front of her. I never touched the nurse.”
“And so the nurse stood up, kind ‘Who touched me?’ And then the other one goes, you know, like — and I walked out. Thought it was funny,” Dr. St. Claire continued. “So they asked me did you do that. Yes. Yes. There’s no assault, no — I mean, just do something to be a little bit light.”
Mr. Young pressed Dr. St. Claire about his own mental health issues, during the October 2, 2024 deposition. He asked him about “statements” his sister made about him “getting treatment for mental health issues” when he was either a medical student or in college. Dr. St. Claire graduated from Michigan State’s College of Human Medicine in 1982. He was apparently referring to information that Dr. St. Claire’s sister gave to Janet Hamilton, a divorce lawyer who briefly represented Ms. Fameux, in October 2023. Dr. St. Claire’s sister didn’t respond to my message seeking comment.
“Do you believe or are you claiming that’s a false statement?” Mr. Young asked, referring to Dr. St. Claire’s sister’s comment.
Dr. St. Claire’s lawyer, Jessica Larson, objected to the question, claiming it was based on hearsay. “I’m directing him not to answer,” Larson said, according to the transcript.
Mr. Young pressed again, asking Dr. St. Claire, “You’re refusing to answer my question about your past mental health diagnosis and treatment?”
Ms. Larson again objected, asking Young to narrow the question to within a 20-year time-frame not “about 50 year old questions, no, absolutely not.”
Ms. Larson also said, “My client has been at Sparrow Hospital for 30 years where he was a trusted anesthesiologist…”
Mr. Young retorted, “Well, Dr. Nassar was a doctor to the gymnasts for 30 years,” a reference to Larry Nassar, the convicted serial child rapist who was sentenced between 2017 and 2018 to a total of up to 360 years in federal and state prisons.
Mr. Young then said, “I’m going to state for the record that I’ve asked you two questions about your mental health conditions and treatment, and you are not willing to answer those questions, is that what I understand?”
When Larson again objected, Mr. Young said, “I’m going to say I believe a diagnosed mental health condition at all is appropriate for you to give an answer to. You are not giving an answer. I can’t force you to give an answer to that, but silence can be telling I guess at this point.”
Ms. Fameux’s position is that even after injecting her with unprescribed Invega Sustenna and getting her to sign the separate maintenance agreement in 2018 — she claimed at one time he tried to get her to sign it after he had her involuntarily committed to Sparrow’s mental health division — the couple continued to live as husband and wife; that she continued to care for the children and maintain the home, and that they continued to sleep together, so she’s entitled to her share of marital assets.
Dr. St. Claire maintains that they were merely housemates, according to his October 2, 2024 deposition, and an earlier one, on September 25, 2024.
Dr. St. Claire conceded, with qualification, during the October 2, 2024 deposition that he and Ms. Fameux sometimes slept together, even after the 2018 separate maintenance agreement was signed. “We slept side by side, yes, in a king size bed and often never touching the whole night, and other times I would go downstairs either because she’s mad and say sleep downstairs, and I go fine, and I’d sleep downstairs,” Dr. St. Claire said, according to the transcript.
Earlier, when Mr. Young first deposed Dr. St. Claire, on September 25, 2024 (the deposition continued on October 2, 2024), he’d asked him, “So your position is that or your testimony would be that after the judgment of separate maintenance was entered — you never had sex with your wife again?”
Dr. St. Claire responded, “I wouldn’t know if it was never, but if it happened, it would be very, very rare, yes.”
At one point Dr. St. Claire asked Mr. Young, “Well, first of all, what’s the definition of sex?”
Mr. Young also asked him why he gave Ms. Fameux a birthday card, in 2022, that read, “You are truly the love of my life. For the first time I am in love 100 percent with you. I am in love with someone who loves me as much as I love you. You appreciate life and love to the fullest. I am so lucky to be with you. You make me love, laugh, and learn so much. I love you so much, Greg.”
Dr. St. Claire responded, “Because I learned long ago if you didn’t put something effusive she would take great offense, and it would be hell to pay.”
After Dr. St. Claire and Dr. Barberio stopped injecting Ms. Fameux with Invega Sustenna, she continued being medicated with Abilify, which is also used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, and Tourette syndrome. At some point, she was able to start slowly reconstructing what Dr. St. Claire and Dr. Barberio had done to her, she said.
On September 1, 2023, Dr. Barberio admitted to Ms. Fameux that she was not schizophrenic. It is the recording of that conversation that Ms. Fameux played to the Meridian Township Police Department on September 10, 2024 and later provided them a copy of the audio. Ms. Fameux also provided the audio and additional evidence to the regulatory and licensing authority, LARA. She also forwarded her complaint to the Detroit bureau of the FBI and to Michigan Attorney General, Dana Nessel, she said.
Dr. Barberio also informed Ms. Hamilton, the lawyer who briefly represented Ms. Fameux in her ongoing divorce, in 2023, that he was “unsure” of her diagnosis — even though he’d diagnosed her with schizophrenia in 2017–according to an e-mail message that Ms. Hamilton sent to Ms. Fameux on October 9, 2023.
Dr. Barberio also confirmed to Ms. Hamilton that the Invega Sustenna supplies had come from samples and were not prescribed.
When Ms. Fameux filed the police complaint against Dr. St. Claire on September 10, 2024, she met with officer Nathan Wicks. She played him the audio of the conversation where Dr. Barberio conceded that she was not schizophrenic, she said. She later sent him a copy of the audio, together with additional evidence to support her complaint.
“Our investigation is ongoing. Ms. Fameux recently submitted additional documents that need to be examined regarding her meeting with Ofc. Wicks in September,” Grillo, the police chief, said in an e-mail message to me on October 28, 2024.
On January 7, Chief Grillo responded to my follow-up e-mail messages of December 20, 2024 and January 6, 2025, inquiring if Dr. Barberio and Dr. St. Claire had been interviewed in light of the latter’s admission, on three occasions, to having injected Ms. Fameux with the unprescribed Invega Sustenna since Dr. Barberio had also said she wasn’t schizophrenic. “Our investigation is on going and I am unable to provide any specifics at this time,” Chief Grillo wrote in an e-mail message.
As previously mentioned, Dr. St. Claire’s defamation lawsuit claims I falsely reported that LARA was investigating Ms. Fameux’s allegations against him.
Yet, in my article, I’d quoted LARA spokesperson Abby Rubley’s May 1, 2024 e-mail message that read: “LARA does not comment on open investigations.”
LARA also confirmed to me via phone conversation in October 2024 that Ms. Fameux’s allegations against Dr. St. Claire of illegal injection. In an e-mail message on November 13, 2024, LARA stated the investigation was “current and active.” Dr. Barberio has been interviewed by LARA as part of the investigation, according to people familiar with the matter.
Dr. St. Claire in his defamation filing blames me and Black Star News for his termination by Sparrow Hospital. Yet, when he was deposed by Mr. Young on September 25, 2024, and October 2, 2024, Dr. St. Claire said he was suspended on November 4, 2023 after Ms. Fameux reported that he’d accessed her medical records without her permission. He testified that he went in Ms. Fameux’s records “under her direction” with her “verbal authorization.”
Asked by Mr. Young if he was “terminated directly due” to Ms. Famuex’s complaint, Dr. St. Claire said, “Her false allegations that I didn’t have permission and that she didn’t ask me to look in her medical records and the publicity that she bombarded Sparrow with.”
“If she claims I went into her chart without her permission, anyone knows that’s a HIPAA violation,” Dr. St. Claire also testified. He said he’d told Sparrow “from day one that I went into her chart twice, that I was the anesthesiologist of record, that she asked me.”
Dr. St. Claire said when he was called in about the medical records matter, he called Denny Martin, president of Sparrow Hospital. “I said ‘Denny, I just found out my wife is sending all kinds of crazy stuff out.’ He said ‘Yeah, I can tell she’s crazy by the things we’ve been getting.’ He said, ‘I’ve been meaning to call you about it, can we meet tomorrow,’” Dr. St. Claire testified, according to the transcript. (U Michigan Health-Sparrow spokespersons John Foren and Mary Mason didn’t respond to an e-mail message seeking comment from Dr. Martin about the comment attributed to him by Dr. St. Claire).
Dr. St. Claire said he was then placed on leave pending the outcome of the investigation. “So then, three months go by, called me in again, ‘well, Greg, we found nothing you changed. We found no medical changing, you did nothing like that,’” he said, during the October 2, deposition.
Dr. St. Claire was not allowed to return to work at Sparrow after his November 4, 2023 suspension. His employment ended on February 28, 2024, according to records from the ongoing divorce case.
Dr. St. Claire also named his wife, Ms. Fameux, as a party to the lawsuit, although he has yet to serve her, she said. He also included Pacifica Foundation, the parent company of WBAI 99.5 FM New York Radio, because I discussed Ms. Fameux’s story on an episode of my weekly “Black Star News” program.
Ms. Fameux said she’s eager to take the stand to finally tell her side of the story when the divorce case continues on January 29, 2025.
This article was updated on January 13, 2025.
The author can be reached via [email protected]
Note: Ms. Fameux first contacted me in October 2023 with her allegations that Dr. St. Claire and Dr. Barberio had injected her illegally with unprescribed Invega Sustenna for years even though she wasn’t schizophrenic and didn’t have bipolar disorder.
She alleged in her affidavit to the U.S. Attorney that Dr. St. Claire’s abuse started in 2014 when he spiked an energy booster she used to drink before workouts; this was about five years into their marriage. The Invega Sustenna injections didn’t start until 2017, she alleged. Ms. Fameux said she’d been trying to get help for the last 10 years without success.
Ms. Fameux told me, “Your stories saved my life.” She is no longer being medicated by Dr. St. Claire and Dr. Barberio with powerful antipsychotic drugs, she said. She remains concerned about the long-term impact of the brain tumor, heart condition, and diabetes, even though the injections stopped in 2021. The side-effects of the injections also required surgery that left her interfile, she said.
Since Dr. St. Claire’s attorney, Newberg, served me electronically with the lawsuit on January 2, 2025, I have until January 30, 2025 to respond.
Dr. St. Claire’s own words — and court documents — exonerates Black Star News’ reporting. The purpose of Dr. St. Claire’s lawsuit is to silence Black Star News and prevent the reports about his actions from being published. He is seeking $500,000 in damages in order to destroy my independent investigative journalism.
Please support our GoFundMe campaign so I can hire a lawyer licensed to practice in Michigan to defend me and Black Star News against Dr. St. Claire’s frivolous lawsuit whose purpose is to suppress my journalism
