‘Huge step toward justice’: Activists, alleged victims overjoyed by ex-KCK cop’s arrest
The arrest of former Kansas City, Kansas, police detective Roger Golubski was met with joy Thursday by activists and alleged victims who have long called for him to be indicted.
Golubski, 69, is set to appear in court Thursday afternoon on six federal charges that he deprived two women of their civil rights by sexually assaulting them at times from 1998 to 2002.
The former detective’s arrest marked what activists called “a beginning of justice” in Kansas City, Kansas. Golubski has long been accused of violating resident’s civil rights and raping vulnerable Black women.
Ophelia Williams has accused Golubski of raping her in 1999. Her accusations are believed to have led to three of the charges against Golubski. She told The Star that she cried when an FBI agent called her Thursday morning to say Golubski had been arrested at his Edwardsville home.
“Maybe Black people will get justice now,” she said.
The Rev. Rick Behrens, a board member of the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity, which for years has called for Golubski to be charged, said his arrest was a “huge step toward justice” for his alleged victims. But he said the community is still faced with “the need for truth and reconciliation in light of all the pain, injustice and evil we have allowed.”
“Those who enabled and sheltered him, including the criminal court system, KCKPD and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County should also be held accountable,” Behrens said.
Violet Martin, MORE2 executive board member who says her brother was wrongly convicted in a case allegedly investigated by Golubski, said it took over three decades for Thursday to come.
“Thirty years of this man living like he is a law-abiding citizen and he is one of the biggest criminals we have in Wyandotte County,” she said in a MORE2 statement.
Startrena “Star” Cooper, whose mother Dorothy Fay Cooper was killed in 1983, has long been critical of Golubski and how her mother’s murder case was handled. Cooper recently tried to get the police department to reopen the investigation of her mother’s killing.
“This is the best day ever. I’m overjoyed,” Cooper told The Star. “After 38 years there’s a possibility that my mother could finally get justice. I prayed that this day would come and it has.”
In a joint statement, attorneys Cheryl Pilate and Lindsay Runnels, who represented Lamonte McIntyre and his mother Rose McIntyre in a lawsuit against the Unified Government, commended federal authorities in their pursuit of Golubski. McIntyre was freed from prison in 2017 after serving 23 years for a double homicide he did not commit.
“We are hopeful the justice system delivers the accountability that the Kansas City, Kansas, community deserves,” the attorneys said.
Earlier this year, the Unified Government settled the McIntyres’ lawsuit for $12.5 million — the largest public wrongful conviction settlement in Kansas history. The lawsuit accused Golubski of not only using his position to sexually abuse Black women, but of framing innocent people for crimes committed by others, including drug dealers who paid him.
KCK Police Chief Karl Oakman, in a statement released Thursday afternoon, said the indictment “is an example that no individual is above the law. The department will continue to cooperate and offer any assistance needed by the FBI as this case moves forward.”
This story was originally published September 15, 2022 at 11:34 AM.
