Judge Koenig. Source: Ingham County Court website.
Black Star News Editorial
Michigan’s judiciary faces many problems, but one judge in Lansing has now forced the state to confront a nearly unthinkable question: What happens when the court itself becomes a danger to justice?
Judge Carol N. Koenig of the Ingham County 30th Judicial Circuit Court has rendered that question unavoidable. Her recent ruling in the divorce and property case involving Dr. Paul Gregory St. Claire, 73, and his Haitian immigrant wife, Cassandra Fameux, 45, is so egregiously biased, so factually indefensible, and so corrosive to the rule of law that it demands urgent intervention from state oversight authorities—and, ultimately, her removal from the bench.
Dr. St. Claire. Source: Family photo.
At the center of this scandal is a deeply disturbing criminal allegation. In April 2025, after a six-month investigation, the Meridian Township Police Department recommended that Dr. St. Claire, be charged with domestic assault for allegedly poisoning Ms. Fameux for nearly a decade with powerful antipsychotic drugs, including Invega Sustenna—administering it himself or through an accomplice, his colleague Dr. Dominic Barberio. Ms. Fameux told Police investigators the poisoning was part of a scheme to coerce her into signing away millions in marital assets in a Judgment of Separate Maintenance (JOSM), which she did on Feb. 20, 2018. She developed a brain tumor, a heart condition, and diabetes during the years she was drugged.
Since Ms. Fameux had neither schizophrenia nor bipolar disorder, Dr. Barberio, a psychiatrist, allegedly fabricated both diagnoses to justify administering the medications.
Ms. Fameux told police that the injections she received in U Michigan Health Sparrow were administered by Dr. St. Claire, an anesthesiologist. She said Dr. Barberio only injected her at home—and only when Dr. St. Claire was angry with her. According to her account, he would call Dr. Barberio, who arrived to administer the shot as a form of “punishment.” Black Star News has obtained copies of Dr. St. Claire’s handwritten notes documenting those home visits for Invega Sustenna injections.
More than seven months later, Ingham County Prosecutor John Dewane has made no charging decision. The public deserves to ask him directly what he is waiting for and can reach him via (517) 483-6108 and [email protected]
Readers can also sign this petition.
But even before criminal accountability, it was the job of the courts to ensure that Ms. Fameux—a woman police now believe was chemically incapacitated by her husband—was not financially stripped and legally silenced through fraud. Instead, Judge Carol Koenig ensured exactly that outcome.
A Judgment Built on Fraud
The facts are not seriously in dispute. Even divorce court proceedings established that:
- Dr. St. Claire administered or arranged for injections of Invega Sustenna for years.
- Two independent psychiatrists—including one from Michigan’s Community Mental Health—confirmed Ms. Fameux does not have schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, the conditions the drug is approved to treat.
- A secretly recorded conversation captured Dr. Barberio admitting Ms. Fameux was not schizophrenic.
- Medical records were falsified to conceal who administered the injections.
- Dr. St. Claire lived with Ms. Fameux as husband and wife—shared home, shared meals, shared bed—even after the JOSM, contradicting any notion that the agreement reflected a real separation.
Timothy Young, a divorce lawyer representing Ms. Fameux told Judge Koenig that due to the drugging she was “incapacitated” and she “didn’t know what was going on and what she was being asked to sign.”
Mr. Young also contended that Ms. Fameux remained entitled to her share of marital assets because she and her husband, Dr. St. Claire, continued to live as a couple for six years after the documents in question were signed. Dr. St. Claire did not file for divorce until August 2023—shortly after his wife confronted him with a video allegedly showing the physician engaged in a sexual encounter with a married University of Michigan Health–Sparrow nurse in the back seat of his car.
During a deposition, Mr. Young pressed Dr. St. Claire on the couple’s relationship, asking whether the two continued to be intimate. Dr. St. Claire responded, “If it happened, it would be very, very rare, yes.” At another point, the doctor queried Mr. Young, “Well, first of all, what’s the definition of sex?”
Yet Judge Koenig ignored every one of these facts. Worse, she relied on a falsehood of her own making to deny Ms. Fameux’s motion to set aside the JOSM.
The Judge Invented a Guardian Ad Litem Who Never Existed
Michigan Court Rule 2.201(E) is unambiguous: when a party has previously been adjudged incompetent, the court must appoint a Guardian Ad Litem (GAL). Ms. Fameux had been declared incompetent in 2015. No GAL was appointed for her—ever.
The only lawyer appointed in the case was Melissa Leckie, as Attorney Guardian Ad Litem (AGAL), whose obligation was to protect the rights of the minor children.
To sidestep this blatant legal violation, Judge Koenig claimed in her ruling that a “guardian ad litem” represented Ms. Fameux. That person does not exist. The judge referred to a phantom, a fabricated officer of the court. She also wrongly described Ms. Fameux’s sister—whose guardianship was arranged at the request of Dr. St. Claire—as “actively involved” in negotiating the settlement, despite evidence the sister cooperated with the husband and that Dr. St. Claire’s own lawyer, Jessica Larson of Mallory, Lapka, Scott & Selin, filed the paperwork appointing her and also became her lawyer.
This was not judicial error. This was judicial fiction.
A Web of Conflicts the Judge Pretended Not to See
Judge Koenig’s ruling minimized or ignored an astonishing network of conflicts:
- The “private attorney” she cites as having represented Ms. Fameux’s best interest, Robin Omer, was hired and paid by Dr. St. Claire.
- Mr. Omer had previously been law partners with Jane Radner the attorney who represented Dr. St. Claire in his earlier divorce—during which he also accused his previous wife Dr. Marcy Street, of mental illness. She reportedly died of cancer in 2019.
- The guardian for Ms. Fameux, her sister Jenny Smith, was also represented by Dr. St. Claire’s lawyer, Ms. Larson.
In plain terms, the judge allowed a situation in which Ms. Fameux was, for all practical purposes, represented by her alleged abuser.
She also denied Ms. Fameux attorney fees meaning she’s had to dip into her retirement money to fund the divorce initiated by her husband, even though she was the homemaker and hasn’t worked for decades and is now seriously sick.
Yet when confronted with questions about these glaring contradictions by Black Star News—emailed to her and to the chief judge Shauna Dunnings—Judge Koenig issued no explanation. She simply rushed out a divorce decree on Nov. 3, 2025, closed the case, and attempted to bury the record.
Judge Koenig’s ruling harkens back to Justice Roger B. Taney’s 1857 Dred Scott ruling.
A Victim Without Assets, Without Custody, and Without Protection
Today, despite a 50/50 custody order in place, Ms. Fameux has not been allowed visitation with her minor son since July 2, 2025. The child remains in the home of the man police recommended be criminally charged for poisoning the mother. The Friend of the Court has provided no explanation and apparently conducted no safety assessment.
Meanwhile, Ms. Fameux is left penniless, assetless, and medically damaged—brain tumor, heart condition, diabetes, infertility—while her alleged abuser enjoys the benefit of an agreement extracted during years of drug-induced incapacitation.
As Ms. Fameux recently put it:
“I’m being treated like I’m in Alabama in the 1950s.”
A Judge Who Must Not Remain on the Bench
Judges have made wrong decisions before. But what Judge Koenig has done is different. She:
- Issued factual statements contradicted by the record.
- Invented a nonexistent GAL to mask a violation of Michigan law.
- Endorsed an agreement tainted by fraud, coercion, and chemical incapacitation.
- Ratified conflicts of interest that would shame any court.
- Ignored substantiated allegations corroborated by police.
- Closed the case after media inquiries, as though slamming the door could erase documented misconduct.
This is not judging. This is abuse of judicial authority.
The Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission must review her actions immediately. If its mandate—to protect the public and preserve the integrity of the courts—means anything, then removal must be on the table.
And Prosecutor Dewane owes the public an answer about why a police-recommended poisoning charge sits untouched on his desk.
Justice in Michigan Now Depends on Accountability
A functioning justice system cannot tolerate a judge who disregards law, invents facts, and closes her eyes to systematic coercion and medical abuse. Michigan’s judiciary will either confront this crisis now—or further betray the vulnerable people who depend on it for protection, not persecution.
Judge Carol Koenig’s continued presence on the bench is incompatible with justice.
It is time for her to go.
Editor’s Note: Judge Koenig took matters into her own hands and resolved the “minor” issue of no Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) ever being appointed for Ms. Fameux by conjuring one out of thin air–please see pages 2 and 3.
