Who was Roger Golubski? What charges did the disgraced former KCK police detective face?
Editor’s note: This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is at risk of self-harm, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides 24-hour support at 988.
Former Kansas City, Kansas, police detective Roger Golubski died by suicide Monday morning, the day his federal trial was set to begin in Topeka, according to three sources close to the investigation.
Golubski was accused of a spate of crimes, many of them against Black women, dating from his time with the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department, where he was an officer from 1975 until 2010. He was to stand trial for six felony counts of civil rights violations stemming from rape and kidnapping. A second indictment accused him of enabling an underage sex trafficking ring.
Here’s a look at who Golubski was and what he was charged with.
Who was Roger Golubski?
Golubski’s career in the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department began in 1975. Over the subsequent decades, a now-retired FBI agent named Alan Jennerich described deep-seated corruption and a culture of protecting wrongdoers in the department.
During his investigation of KCKPD officers suspected of civil rights violations, Jennerich found that Golubski “used the authority of his position to extort sexual favors” from vulnerable Black women, according to a 2015 affidavit.
“The women were powerless, and Golubski exploited them,” he stated. But his investigation into Golubski fizzled out due to what Jennerich described as the FBI’s reluctance at the time to hold police officers accountable for serious crimes.
Golubski’s actions allegedly also sent an innocent man, Lamonte McIntyre, to prison at age 17 for a double murder he did not commit. McIntyre’s innocence claim and a later civil suit accused Golubski of sexually assaulting McIntyre’s mother and coercing testimony to implicate him.
McIntyre was released in 2017, with Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree calling his conviction a “manifest injustice.” The county eventually awarded McIntyre $12.5 million.
The accusations against Golubski continued to accumulate, including allegations that he sabotaged other murder cases and raped a 13-year-old girl in his police car.
But despite knowledge of his alleged wrongdoings circulating in the community, Golubski received a full pension when he retired from the KCKPD in 2010. He then worked for six more years as a detective in the Edwardsville Police Department.
What charges did Golubski face?
Only in the past few years have Golubski’s numerous alleged crimes started to catch up with him. In late 2021, news broke that federal charges were pending against him.
In 2022, he was arrested at his Edwardsville home and indicted on six federal counts of willfully depriving two women of their federal civil rights through aggravated sexual abuse, kidnapping and sexual assault. He faced up to life in prison.
At least nine women were expected to testify at Golubski’s trial to prove a sustained pattern of abuse, particularly against Black women. Golubski was detained under house arrest in Edwardsville as he awaited trial.
In late 2023, more charges emerged as five women sued Golubski, other KCKPD officials and Wyandotte County for the alleged assaults they experienced at Golubski’s hands over the course of decades. Their attorneys wrote that the women’s experiences represent “the wrongs inflicted upon hundreds of unnamed victims, living and dead.”
Golubski’s trial for the six federal civil rights charges was scheduled to begin Monday, Dec. 2. When he didn’t show up to court in Topeka, federal judge Toby Crouse issued a warrant for Golubski’s arrest.
Three sources with knowledge of the investigation told The Star that Golubski had died by suicide Monday morning, with one specifying that he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The sources spoke on the condition that their names not be used.
Do you have more questions about law enforcement accountability in Kansas or Missouri area? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.
This story was originally published December 2, 2024 at 12:27 PM.
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