Lawyer Exits Firm; Her Client, Dr. Greg St. Claire, Formerly Of University Of Michigan, Accused Of “Poisoning” Wife

By Milton Allimadi

Jessica Larson (above) exits firm. Photo: Mallory, Lapka, Scott & Selin website.

Jessica Larson, the longtime attorney for former University of Michigan anesthesiologist Dr. Paul Gregory St. Claire, whose wife accused of “poisoning,” has left her law firm, as scrutiny intensifies over her and her client’s alleged involvement—together with two judges—in manipulating court records in St. Claire’s divorce from his Haitian-American wife, Cassandra Fameux.

Dr. Paul Gregory St. Claire. Photo: Family

Separately, on April 10, 2025 the Meridian Township Police in Okemos, Michigan, had recommended criminal charges against Dr. St. Claire after investigating Ms. Fameux’s criminal complaint alleging that he and a University of Michigan colleague, psychiatrist Dr. Dominic Barberio, poisoned her for nine years at the hospital—and in the couple’s marital home—with antipsychotic drugs.

It is unclear whether Larson’s departure from Mallory, Lapka, Scott & Selin, PLLC⁠, is connected to a Nov. 30, 2025 investigation published by Black Star News⁠ alleging that Larson, Dr. St. Claire, retired Judge Janelle A. Lawless, current presiding Judge Carol N. Koenig, and possibly others, participated in a scheme to fabricate evidence in order to preserve a multimillion-dollar divorce settlement in favor of Dr. St. Claire.

The firm did not respond to two e-mail messages seeking comment. Larson had represented Dr. St. Claire in contentious domestic litigation against Fameux for more than a decade.

Ms. Larson had once threatened to sue Black Star News. 

In a criminal complaint filed Sept. 10, 2024, Fameux alleged that Dr. St. Claire and Dr. Barberio administered Risperdal to her from 2014 to 2017; Invega Sustenna injections from 2017 to 2021; and Abilify from 2021 to 2023.

According to the criminal complaint, the alleged drugging left Fameux with severe medical complications, including a brain tumor, diabetes, infertility, and a heart condition requiring a loop monitor implanted in her chest.

Fameux alleges the purpose of the drugging was financial: to secure her signature on a Judgment of Separate Maintenance, or JOSM, transferring millions of dollars in marital assets and two homes to Dr. St. Claire. It gave Dr. St. Claire in custody of the couple’s three children, then all minors, by naming Barberio as the psychiatrist who would determine Fameux’s mental fitness for co-parenting. 

She signed the agreement on Feb. 20, 2018. In an Oct. 22, 2024 motion seeking to set aside the JOSM, attorney Timothy Young argued that Fameux lacked the capacity to understand the agreement because of the alleged drugging. “These drugs incapacitated defendant to the extent she did not know the why or what was happening,” Young wrote. Judge Koenig, now at the center of the fabricating evidence allegations,  denied the motion.

Judge Carol N. Koenig. Photo: Ingham County court website

But the case took a more serious turn when it emerged that the court had previously declared Fameux incompetent in 2015 at Dr. St. Claire’s request. Under Michigan law, a guardian ad litem (GAL) should have been appointed before she entered into the settlement agreement. No GAL was ever appointed.

In May 2025, attorney Lisa D. Stern of Hertz Schram⁠ filed a motion to set aside the JOSM on that basis.

Instead of throwing out the JOSM, Judge Koenig became part of an elaborate scheme that was initiated eight years earlier and fabricated the GAL. 

During a Dec. 20, 2017 pro confesso hearing overseen by Judge Lawless—where neither Fameux nor her then-attorney Robin Omer were present—Larson elicited false testimony from her client, according to court transcripts reviewed by Black Star News.

Even though no GAL had been appointed, Larson asked Dr. St. Claire:

“Have you and Ms. Fameux and her guardian ad litem executed a mediation agreement?”

“Yes,” Dr. St. Claire replied.

That exchange later became central to Judge Koenig’s Sept. 3, 2025 ruling denying Stern’s motion to set aside the agreement. “It is clear from the transcript that there are no objections to the entry of the JOSM,” Koenig wrote. “The defendant’s lawyer, guardian ad litem and her sister guardian were all involved and supporting her during the negotiations and final settlement of the JOSM.”

Yet no guardian ad litem had ever been appointed. Judge Koenig’s ruling also did not mention that Fameux’s then-lawyer, Robin Omer, had been hired and paid by Dr. St. Claire. In a 2003 divorce involving Dr. St. Claire and his second wife, Dr. Marcy Street, whom Dr. St. Claire also accused of mental illness and who died reportedly of cancer in 2009, attorney Jane Radner—who represented Dr. St. Claire in that divorce—was Omer’s law partner.

Nor did Judge Koenig’s ruling clarify that Fameux’s sister, Jenny Smith, had been appointed only as guardian, not guardian ad litem, through paperwork prepared by Larson, who also represented Smith.

Despite the seriousness of the allegations, Stern did not object to the alleged fraudulent conduct by Judge Koenig and the other parties, nor did she file a motion for reconsideration after the Sept. 3 ruling, when Ms. Fameux asked her to.

Black Star News has reported this alleged scheme involving Larson, Dr. St. Claire, Judge Koenig, and retired Judge Lawless to the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel, the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI, and Ingham County Chief Circuit and Probate Judge Shauna Dunnings.

The three partners at Larson’s former firm—Tom Lapka, Keldon Scott, and Todd Selin—did not respond to questions asking whether Larson’s departure was connected to the fabrication of the GAL allegations or whether the firm had referred the matter to law enforcement. A May 1, 2026 message sent to Larson’s former firm e-mail address generated an automatic reply stating: “Please note that Jessica Larson is no longer with Mallory, Lapka, Scott & Selin, PLLC and has left private practice.”

As of May 11, 2026, Larson’s biography and photograph remained on the firm’s website.

Jessica Larson’s image, on the right, remained on the firm’s website as of May 11, 2026.

Judge Koenig remains on the bench and continues to preside over custody matters in the same St. Claire v. Fameux case where she engaged in the alleged misconduct.

Although Koenig ordered 50/50 custody of the couple’s remaining minor child, Fameux says Dr. St. Claire has blocked her visitation since July 2025 without enforcement action from the court. She believes Judge Koenig wants to try and award sole custody to Dr. St. Claire even though the police recommended criminal action against him. 

The allegations surrounding Ms. Fameux’s psychiatric diagnosis itself have also intensified. Fameux told Meridian Township police that Dr. Barberio falsely diagnosed her with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder at Dr. St. Claire’s request in 2014. Medical records from another University of Michigan Health Sparrow physician, Dr. John Maino, show a different diagnosis.

On Dec. 16, 2014, Dr. Maino diagnosed Fameux with anorexia, depression, anxiety attacks, insomnia, and microcytic anemia. His records did not mention schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

During the couple’s divorce trial, which concluded in November 2025, psychiatrist Dr. Rita Aouad testified that Fameux did not suffer from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Instead, she testified that Fameux suffered from PTSD caused by years of abuse during the marriage. A separate court-ordered evaluation by psychiatrist Dr. Randall E. Haugen concluded: “There was no evidence of psychosis in her thinking or perceptual abilities.”

Fameux also provided Meridian Township police with an audio recording in which Dr. Barberio allegedly acknowledged that she was not schizophrenic.

Dr. Barberio did not respond to questions from Black Star News regarding how he reached his diagnosis in light of Dr. Maino’s records. An e-mail to attorney Kim J. Sveska of Foley, Baron, Metzger & Juip, PLLC⁠, who represented Dr. Barberio during a Feb. 7, 2025 deposition in the divorce case, generated an automatic response stating he had “officially retired at the end of 2025.” The inquiry was referred to attorney Chloe Schumacher, who did not respond to an e-mail message.

Jon Foren, spokesperson for University of Michigan Health Sparrow⁠, also did not respond to questions copied to the university’s board of regents regarding Dr. Barberio’s diagnosis of Fameux.

Dr. Barberio remains employed by the hospital.

Fameux told investigators that between 2017 and 2020 Dr. Barberio did not write prescriptions for Invega Sustenna and instead used samples kept in a storage cabinet inside his office. Medical records reviewed by Black Star News identify Dr. Barberio as the physician who administered the monthly injections. Divorce testimony, however, show that Dr. St. Claire personally injected his wife in Dr. Barberio’s office. Dr. Barberio, in the deposition, said Dr. St. Claire administered approximately 90% of the injections at the hospital while two nurses administered the rest.

Fameux alleged the only times Dr. Barberio personally injected her were during episodes when Dr. St. Claire was angry with her. In one instance, she alleged Dr. Barberio came to the marital home and injected her after Dr. St. Claire became upset because she was too tired to cook for his adult daughters by Dr. Street. Dr. St. Claire kept handwritten notes documenting Dr. Barberio’s home visits, including one dated May 27, 2020, reviewed by Black Star News.

Dr. Dominic Barberio. Photo: U Michigan Health Sparrow website.

Questions also remain about the response from University of Michigan Health Sparrow. Black Star News submitted a FOIA request to the hospital on Oct. 15, 2025. Seven months later, despite payment of a $25 fee requested by the university, the records still had not been produced. The university has repeatedly extended its own arbitrary disclosure deadlines with total disregard for the law. The sixth deadline is June 1, 2026. (Here are the previous five dates announced by the university: Oct. 22, 2025; Nov. 5, 2025; Nov. 11, 2025; March 6, 2026; April 20, 2026; and, June 1, 2026). 

Dr. St. Claire was fired by University of Michigan Health Sparrow on Feb. 28, 2024 after a series of Black Star News investigative reports. During the divorce proceedings, Dr. St. Claire testified that he was suspended and later terminated after Fameux informed the hospital that he had accessed and altered her medical records. Supporting that allegation are notes written by Linda Wenzel, a social worker with Community Mental Health, memorializing a conversation with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA). 

Wenzel’s notes, contained in Fameux’s CMH file states, “In July 2024 LARA contacted this writer and reported that [Fameux’s] estranged husband did in fact access and modify [her] reports and that this was criminal in natural (sic) and recommended that [Fameux] file a police report and to get a ppo in place.” (PPO refers to personal protective order). 

LARA investigator, Norman Naimy, died on Dec. 9, 2025, according to a public announcement that did not disclose a cause of death.

Fameux has alleged on numerous occasions that Dr. St. Claire, once a prominent physician with wide connections in Lansing, Michigan, enjoys institutional bias. After Meridian Township Police recommended that he be criminally charged for poisoning his wife, Ingham County Prosecutor John Dewane declined to authorize an arrest warrant. 

Prosecutor John Dewane. Photo: Ingham County prosecutor website.

Yet, Fameux herself is now facing criminal prosecution stemming from a Christmas Day 2025 incident that raises additional questions about how authorities have handled the case. According to Fameux, she was attempting to call her sister to obtain a credit card number to pay for a hotel room after her own card was declined when a hotel clerk called 911 before giving her enough time to resolve the issue. Fameux was subsequently charged with resisting arrest, although a police report reviewed by Black Star News raises questions about the basis for the charge.

Fameux was later transferred to CMH at around midnight by the police, and from there, a social worker named Daniel Peters, who is not involved in her treatment, walked into her room, woke her up at around 2 a.m., and had her transferred to the University of Michigan Health Sparrow without authorization, she said.

U-M Health sent Ms. Fameux to Samaritan Hospital in Detroit on Dec. 26, 2025, where she says she was forcefully drugged with antipsychotic medications against her will for about three weeks. She was only released after this reporter found out where she was and intervened by contacting CMH, Gov. Whitmer, Attorney General Nessel, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the FBI.

This is not the first time Ms. Fameux has reported being forcefully drugged against her will. 

In July 2024, Dr. St. Claire filed a $500,000 defamation lawsuit against Black Star News and this reporter, who considers the suit “a desperate attempt at intimidation and to prevent the truth from being exposed,” are represented by Detroit law firm Butzel Long⁠. 

The case remains pending before Judge Morgan Cole in Ingham County’s 30th Judicial Circuit Court.