The Star joins KSHB, Team Roc in motion to broadcast trial of ex-KCK cop Roger Golubski
The Kansas City Star is seeking a judge’s order to allow the broadcast of federal court proceedings in the upcoming trial of Roger Golubski, a retired Kansas City, Kansas, homicide detective accused of abusing his badge to rape women and terrorize Black residents for decades.
Federal rules generally prohibit electronic recording and photography in the courtroom. The newspaper joins KSHB-TV in a motion to intervene in the Golubski case brought forward by lawyers for Team Roc, a philanthropic social justice organization led by rapper and businessman Jay-Z.
“Transparency is important to The Star and the work our journalists do for the community, and we will always stand on the side of it,” Andale Gross, The Star’s managing editor, said in an email. “We will join forces whenever we think public officials are trying keep their business secret.”
Golubski is set to go on trial Dec. 2. He is accused of raping, sexually assaulting and kidnapping two victims while acting under the color of law, according the first of two federal indictments brought against him in the past two years.
An attorney representing Golubski did not immediately reply to The Star’s request for comment on the motion.
The former cop, who has maintained innocence, worked for Kansas City, Kansas, police between 1975 and 2010. The crimes are alleged to have taken place between 1997 and 2002, though Golubski has long been accused by advocates and others in the community of more sweeping crimes and misconduct.
A second federal case involving Golubski alleges a conspiracy with three other co-defendants, including longtime drug kingpin Cecil Brooks. Prosecutors allege Golubski shielded from police investigation a sex trafficking ring at an apartment complex at Delvan Avenue and 26th Street during the 1990s, where young women and underage girls were forced into sexual servitude.
The upcoming trial is set to take place in Topeka. Judge Toby Crouse issued a court decorum order Tuesday that bars the use of any video or audio recording devices of any kind to be permitted there or in any overflow locations.
In the motion to intervene Thursday, Team Roc’s lawyers are asking for a telecast of court proceedings to be permitted and shared over the internet. Doing so would better serve the public to ensure an effective administration of justice, the lawyers argue, as many community members lack the resources to travel 120 miles round-trip during an estimated 17 trial days.
As alternatives, the lawyers suggest offering ways for members of the public to dial in and listen to the trial or broadcasting the proceedings from court cameras to the federal courthouse in Kansas City, Kansas.
“Transparency in trial proceedings is of the utmost importance for the public and to protect the First Amendment rights of the press,” attorneys Jordan Siev and Lara Gatz, of the Reed Smith law firm, said in a statement shared by Team Roc on Thursday, saying a broadcast “will prove to all that the justice system is open and fair.”
