By Milton G. Allimadi
Photos: Twitter\X\YouTube Screenshots
Cassandra Fameux, the Haitian immigrant who accused her anesthesiologist husband Dr. Paul Gregory St. Claire (below) of U-Michigan Health-Sparrow Hospital of “drugging” her for years claims he called the police Friday, Jan. 26, and had her arrested and that she’s being held against her will at the hospital.
“I think they want to silence me,” Ms. Fameux said, in a brief phone call with this reporter.
When the reporter asked Ms. Fameux to ask a nurse why she was being held at the hospital, one of the nurses told her that a “doctor Baker” said she was there for psychiatric treatment. It’s not clear if it’s the Dr. John A. Baker who is listed on the hospital’s website as specializing in: psychiatry; geriatric psychiatry; psychosomatic medicine; and addiction psychiatry.
When this reporter reached two nurses in the location where Ms. Fameux is confined by phone between 7:30 PM and 8PM tonight both said she was “undergoing a medical procedure” and unable to speak. It’s unclear who authorized the procedure and what it was.
Ms. Fameux said she and Dr. St. Claire had an argument Friday and that she smashed a coffee maker on the floor. Dr. St. Claire then called the police who responded from Meridian Township Police Department, in Okemos, M.I., a suburb of Lansing where the couple live. She said two female police officers who responded first spoke with her and then after speaking with Dr. St. Claire said they were taking her to the hospital.
She said she recognized one of them as an officer who came all the way to her home some weeks ago to serve her a traffic violation ticket and spoke for a considerable time with Dr. St. Claire.
It’s unclear if the police arrested Ms. Fameux, or on what basis or authority they took her to the hospital. The couple is in divorce proceedings; Dr. St. Claire filed the action last year in August shortly after Ms. Fameux had confronted him with video evidence of his alleged infidelity.
The argument between the couple and the police intervention occurred one day after Black Star News published, on Jan. 25, 2024, a third article in a series that has been examining alleged serious transgressions by Dr. St. Claire. It’s unclear if he allegedly instigated the argument with Ms. Fameux as retaliation for the article.
Dr. St. Claire’s lawyer, Jessica Larson, of Lansing-M.I.-based Mallory Lapka Scott & Selin, in an e-mail message has informed this reporter that any more questions to her and Dr. St. Claire and her law firm would be considered “harassment.” So Black Star News was unable to contact Dr. St. Claire.
Dr. St. Claire has been employed by U-Michigan Health-Sparrow Hospital—previously Sparrow Hospital—for over three decades. He was suspended over two months ago after Black Star News’ published the first article in this series, according to people familiar with the matter. That first article, published on Nov. 23, 2023, discussed allegations that hospital officials had treated with kid gloves sexual harassment accusations against Dr. St. Claire from his co-workers and a patient.
The second article, published on Dec. 17, 2023 focused on allegations made by Ms. Fameux in an Oct. 30, 2023 affidavit to the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten that Dr. St. Claire and a Sparrow Hospital colleague, Dr. Dominic Barberio, had been illegally medicating her for years with various drugs, and that between 2017 and 2021 they had injected her on a regular basis—sometimes more than once a month—with Invega Sustenna an antipsychotic drug. The two doctors allegedly never wrote prescriptions to avoid leaving a paper trail.
Ms. Fameux also accused Dr. Barberio—who is a friend of Dr. St. Claire’s and who became Ms. Fameux’s therapist—of intentionally falsely diagnosing her as schizophrenic with bipolar disorder in order to pave the way for the illegal injections with Invega Sustenna. In September 2023, Ms. Fameux obtained evidence, reviewed by Black Star News, showing that Dr. Barberio confessed that she was not schizophrenic. Dr. Barberio, in an e-mail message to Janet Hamilton, a lawyer who briefly represented Ms. Fameux, also conceded that the Invega Sustenna came from samples and that it was “normal.”
Hand-written notes by Dr. St. Claire confirmed Ms. Fameux’s allegations that Dr. Barberio sometimes came to their home, at Dr. St. Claire’s request, to inject her with Invega Sustenna. Ms. Fameux claimed Dr. St. Claire sometimes had her injected as punishment; for example when she failed to cook for his adult daughters from his second wife, Dr. Marcy Street, who died in 2019.
Dr. Street sued for divorce in 2003. Documents from that case show that, as with his accusations against Ms. Fameux, he also claimed Dr. Street was mentally unstable.
The alleged motive of having Ms. Fameux falsely diagnosed and then injected with Invega Sustenna—and fed various pills orally—was to impair her mental capacity and have her sign agreements that transferred the bulk of marital assets to Dr. St. Claire and also give him advantage in custody over their three children. Ms. Fameux signed the agreement in 2018, during a period when she was still being allegedly illegally medicated by Dr. St. Claire and Dr. Barberio. The agreement however was not signed by Ms. Fameux’s court-appointed guardian ad litem, Melissa Leckie, raising questions about its validity, as noted in the third Black Star News article.
The third Black Star News article, that may have triggered what Ms. Fameux claims is another scheme by Dr. St. Claire to have her confined at Sparrow Hospital and depicted as “crazy,” focused on the 2018 documents.
Black Star News reached out Tuesday evening to Meridian Police. When Police Chief Rick Grillo called back, this reporter was teaching a class at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. This reporter followed up with an e-mail message to Chief Grillo, inquiring if he was aware of Ms. Fameux’s affidavit to the U.S. Attorney alleging the false diagnosis and illegal injections by Dr. St. Claire in Dr. Barberio’s office at Sparrow.
Dr. St. Claire could certainly not be a neutral party if, on the basis of his words, Meridian Police took Ms. St. Claire to Sparrow Hospital. In a previous article, Ms. Fameux said she planned to take legal action against Dr. St. Claire, Dr. Barberio, and U-Michigan Health-Sparrow Hospital.
Black Star News reached out today to Dr. Santa Ono, president of Michigan University, the parent of U-Michigan Health-Sparrow Hospital, for comment.
Jon Foren, spokesperson at Sparrow sent an e-mail message with the same response to every question posed for the three previous articles: “Following our standard policy, we cannot comment on pending legal and personnel matters.”
Black Star News sent the following e-mail message to Foren, copying President Ono’s chief of staff Jon Kinsey, and Michigan spokesperson Mary Masson: “I understand Dr. St. Claire called his friends at the Okemos police department and told them the same thing he’s been saying about Ms. Fameux–that she is crazy, schizophrenic and bipolar (which is similar to what he said about his late wife Dr. Marcy Street as the court papers we reference in the article shows). I understand he retaliated after the last article was published.
So based on Dr. St. Claire’s words (the same individual the wife has accused of illegally drugging her, together with Dr. Barberio at the hospital, and the same individual that the hospital has documented several sexual harassment allegations against) the hospital has admitted her and medicated her against her will? I understand she was injected twice by a nurse who told her ‘you are not going to win.’ Based on what we have reported so far I would like to be on the record as having expressed concern about Ms. Fameux safety and well being.”
Foren did not respond to the e-mail message.
