by P.D. Lesko
On July 22, 2026, 22nd Circuit Court Judge Julia B. Owdziej, Presiding Judge of the Juvenile Division, ruled against a Motion filed by a man identified as John Doe who intervened in a libel suit filed against the Ann Arbor Independent by Greenhills Principal Peter Fayroian. John Doe’s Motion asked the Judge to rule that his identity did not need to be revealed. The man revealed in his court filing that he had overheard conversations about Fayroian’s alleged conduct at Barton Hills Country Club. The newspaper was apprised, and sought out public court records which included the allegations. The newspaper also obtained the AAPD report in which Fayroian, his ex-wife and the alleged victim were each interviewed. The AAPD report shows after the interviews, the detective asked the County Prosecutor to charge Peter Fayroian with CSC 2nd degree. Prosecutor Eli Savit, however, declined to do so.
Fayroian, who in Oct. 2024 unsuccessfully petitioned Judge Owdziej to force the newspaper to unpublish “Greenhills Head of School Accused of Sexual Abuse,” subsequently filed a SLAPP suit against the newspaper. Prior to publication, Fayroian never responded to requests for comment. After publication, Fayroian did not ask for corrections to the article or submit a demand for a retraction. Nineteen hours after the article that cited police records and 22nd Circuit Court records that included sex abuse allegations made against the Greenhills Principal, Fayroian filed a libel suit.
At the July 22, 2026 hearing, Judge Owdziej not only ruled against the Motion to protect the identity of the confidential source, she fined the Ann Arbor Independent $500 in response to a Motion to Compel filed by Fayroian. The $500 was to compensate Fayroian’s attorney, Andrew Bossory of Joshi Law, for his time in preparing the Motion to Compel. In his Motion to Compel, Fayroian had asked the Judge for an order “awarding the Plaintiff all costs and attorney fees incurred attendant to the original motion to compel discovery, the appointment and expenses billed by the special discovery master and entry of the recommended discovery order, and the expenses incurred attendant to this motion pursuant to MCR 2.313(B).”
In February 2026, instead of hearing Motions on whether and how discovering the identity of John Doe was critical to Fayroian’s case, Judge Owdziej appointed a Special Discovery Master (a Discovery mediator), Mr. James Fraser, a real estate and family law attorney, to determine the matter. Fayroian wants to know who apprised the newspaper of the existence of public court records. The allegations were documented in Fayroian’s own court filings (in one filing he discusses the normalcy of appearing naked in front of one’s children), the filings of his ex-wife, and in hearings before the Hon. Tracy Van den Bergh. In one hearing, Judge Van den Bergh told those present Fayroian had not been cleared of the sex abuse allegations, despite his lawyer’s assertion to the contrary.
Mr. Fraser, who is not an expert in Media Law, found that the identity of John Doe was necessary to determine whether the article “Greenhills Head of School Accused of Sexual Abuse” had been published with actual malice. Because Fayroian is a public figure, the bar for proving libel includes providing proof that the contents of the article were published with actual malice. Actual malice is a high legal standard in U.S. defamation law requiring proof that a publisher knew a statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth. It was established by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark 1964 case New York Times v. Sullivan. Mr. Fraser reasoned, “there appears to be no other way to obtain the requested information [the identity of John Doe] but through Defendants…. As such, it is recommended that the Court enter an order compelling Defendants to respond to Plaintiff’s Interrogatories.”
In March 2026, Judge Owdziej accepted the Special Discovery Master’s recommendations and signed an order which required the name of the confidential source be provided to Peter Fayroian. Fayroian is not asking who apprised the newspaper of the August 2024 AAPD report in which the same sex abuse allegations were documented. The AAPD report includes an interview with Fayroian and his attorney in which the attorney tells the interviewing detective that Fayroian had solicited dozens of letters attesting to his character and fitness as a parent. The letters came from heads of private schools, doctors, teachers, and even Fayroian’s own employees. The letters were included in a public court filing submitted by Fayroian to Judge Tracy E. Van den Bergh, who was hearing a custody dispute between Fayroian and his ex-wife.
Nothing from the confidential informant was ever published.
MCL – Section 767.5a Disclosing identity of informant; privileged and confidential communications. Sec. 5a states,
“(1) a reporter or other person who is involved in the gathering or preparation of news for broadcast or publication shall not be required to disclose the identity of an informant, any unpublished information obtained from an informant, or any unpublished matter or documentation, in whatever manner recorded, relating to a communication with an informant, in any inquiry authorized by this act, except an inquiry for a crime punishable by imprisonment for life when it has been established that the information which is sought is essential to the purpose of the proceeding and that other available sources of the information have been exhausted.”
Governor Rick Snyder appointed Julia Owdziej to the Washtenaw County Probate Court on June 2, 2014. She filled the vacancy left by the early retirement of Judge Nancy Wheeler.
John Doe’s attorney has filed a Motion for Reconsideration and is expected to appeal Judge Owdziej’s ruling to the Michigan Court of Appeals.
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