Golubski denies investigating 1997 KCK murder at hearing for men who claim innocence
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Allegations against former KCK cop Roger Golubski
The Star has reported extensively on former Kansas City, Kansas, detective Roger Golubski and allegations that he victimized Black women during his years on the force.
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Former Kansas City, Kansas, police detective Roger Golubski testified Monday that he did not investigate a 1997 killing that sent two men to prison who claim they are innocent.
The former cop, who in September was indicted on federal charges accusing him of sexual assault and kidnapping, said he did not recall interviewing any witnesses in the killing of his nephew by marriage, 17-year-old Gregory Miller.
“It wasn’t my case,” Golubski testified.
Golubski, who was released on house arrest ahead of his own criminal case, was the third witness called during a two-day hearing that started Monday for Brian Betts and Celester McKinney, who were convicted of murdering Miller.
Golubski was Miller’s uncle through marriage and the brother-in-law of a witness for the prosecution. In 2020, the Court of Appeals granted a hearing — the one that started Monday — on the issue of if Golubski was involved in the homicide investigation, considering his connections to the victim and witness were not disclosed at trial.
Miller, 17, was gunned down in northeast KCK. McKinney’s brother, Dwayne McKinney, was also charged but was acquitted. No physical evidence tied the men to Miller’s killing. Police never recovered the guns that were used.
At trial, the prosecution’s main witness was Carter Betts, the uncle of Celester McKinney and Brian Betts. Carter Betts testified his nephews were living with him and, on the night of the murder, he heard gunshots. After a door opened and closed, Carter Betts went downstairs and saw his nephews, guns at their feet, he said. There, McKinney told him they “shot” Miller, Betts testified.
But after the trial, Carter Betts recanted his testimony, saying he was coerced by KCK detectives and an assistant district attorney, Dan Cahill, who allegedly threatened to charge him if he did not falsely testify. He broke down in tears at Brian Betts’ trial, he testified at a hearing afterward, because he felt like he was “betraying” his nephew by making “false statements.”
“I was pressured and threatened to make that statement,” Carter Betts previously testified.
Betts was the first witness called at the evidentiary hearing Monday. The question before retired Judge Gunnar Sundby, who is overseeing the hearing this week in a senior judge role, is narrow: What, if any role, did Golubski play in the investigation and in obtaining Carter Betts’ trial testimony?
Betts testified he was threatened by two detectives: one he identified as W.K. Smith, the other as white and with a mustache. After looking at a picture, he identified Golubski as the white cop. Betts testified that Golubski once told him if he did not go along with what police wanted, he would “make you suffer and make your family suffer.”
Asked Monday by Betts’ attorney if he had a history of pressuring witnesses, Golubski responded: “Never.” In an effort to rebut that claim, Betts’ lawyer later called to the stand a man named Brian Shields, who testified that when his brother was killed in 1998, Golubski was “adamant” in trying to get him to identify two men in a lineup, even though he had never seen them before.
Betts also said he told Cahill, who is now a Wyandotte County judge, that his statement implicating his nephews was false.
Cahill denied threatening to charge Betts or telling him what to say. Cahill testified Monday that he would have disclosed Golubski’s relationship to the victim had he known about it at the time, but also said he did not think Golubski investigated the case.
While the DA’s office concedes that Golubski was the “husband or estranged ex-husband of the victim’s aunt” when Miller was killed, it said it has no evidence to support that Golubski was involved in the case. The sole mention of Golubski at trial came from another officer, who said he believed detectives Golubski and Smith investigated the killing.
Miller’s family believes the right men were convicted. They created an online petition urging officials to not release Betts and McKinney, saying the convicted killers are “trying to use the situation” with Golubski to get out.
“He did not deserve to be gunned down like some wild animal and left for dead,” the petition stated.
Golubski, who worked at KCKPD from 1975 to 2010, has long been accused by community members of terrorizing Black women and threatening to “put cases” on their male relatives. While he is alleged in the recent indictment to have sexually assaulted two victims, prosecutors say he preyed on or raped seven additional women. Now 69, he has pleaded not guilty.
Golubski was not asked about his pending criminal charges in Monday’s hearing. Outside the courtroom, his lawyer, Chris Joseph, said he had no comment.
In September, The Star published an investigation examining several questionable Wyandotte County convictions, including that of Betts and McKinney. The convictions reviewed by The Star illustrated allegations raised in recent years about the practices of former KCK detectives, including Golubski. In those cases, spanning from 1997 to 2009, detectives are accused of coercing witnesses or falsifying evidence against suspects who, now in prison, maintain they are innocent.
In a call from prison, Betts in June told The Star that he had no knowledge of the murder. He said he was at home at the time, in bed with his fiancée and infant son. Neither he nor his cousins, he maintained, admitted any guilt.
“I was not involved in it in any type of way,” Betts said.
This story was originally published October 24, 2022 at 2:55 PM.
