Star seeks to intervene in Lamonte McIntyre case in hopes of making KCK records public
The Kansas City Star has filed a motion to intervene in the civil case brought by Lamonte McIntyre, which alleged rampant police corruption in Kansas City, Kansas, in an effort to seek to make records public that have been sealed.
In its filing, The Star asked U.S. District Judge Kathryn Vratil for an order allowing it to intervene in the case. The Star ultimately hopes to obtain records that are in the public’s interest by modifying a protective order and vacating another order that allowed some documents to be sealed.
“The protective order, in its present form, inhibits the freedom of the parties to provide pertinent information to the Star, which is essential to its First Amendment newsgathering activities,“ The Star’s attorney, Lyndon Vix, argued in the motion.
The motion comes weeks after Wyandotte County’s commissioners voted to pay $12.5 million to settle the lawsuit, which was brought by McIntyre, who spent 23 years wrongly imprisoned, and his mother, Rose McIntyre, who alleged a former police detective, Roger Golubski, framed her son after she rejected his sexual advances.
Their lawsuit brought to light allegations of misconduct against Golubski, including rape, which he has denied.
Under the protective order in the case, information considered confidential includes criminal investigative files and personnel records of current and former employees of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas.
Lamonte McIntyre was 17 when he was arrested for a 1994 double murder that he did not commit. He was exonerated and released from prison in 2017. The next year, he and his mother filed their lawsuit in the U.S. District of Kansas, contending that the Unified Government and several police officers violated their civil rights.
The McIntyres accused Golubski of using his badge to extort vulnerable Black women for sexual favors and coerce them into fabricating testimony to clear cases he investigated. He was known, they contended, for “putting cases” on innocent people to protect drug dealers who paid him with money and drugs which he, in turn, used to “operate his network of female informants.”
Lawyers for the McIntyres claimed in court records that Golubski “victimized, assaulted, harassed” or tried to harm more than 70 women.
In court records, Golubski, now 69, has denied engaging in criminal activity. At a 2020 deposition, he was asked if he understood he was being accused of “some of the grossest acts of corruption a police officer can commit.” He declined to respond 555 times.
“On the advice of my attorney, I invoke my Fifth Amendment Constitutional Rights,” Golubski mostly replied, reading from a pre-written response.
Golubski retired in 2010 from the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department as a captain after 35 years on the force. He collected his pension and went to the Edwardsville Police Department, where he worked as a detective until 2016.
News broke in October that a federal grand jury was looking into Golubski. It is believed that the federal probe is ongoing.
