Judge clears way for release of KCKPD records after Star intervened in McIntyre case
A federal judge has ruled that lawyers involved in a wrongful conviction lawsuit against Kansas City, Kansas, which recently settled for $12.5 million, can disclose records about city personnel and criminal investigations.
It was a legal win for The Kansas City Star, which filed a motion seeking to make records public that have been sealed in the lawsuit brought in 2017 by Lamonte McIntyre, who spent 23 years in prison for a double murder he did not commit.
The records might shed light on claims made by McIntyre’s attorneys of rampant police corruption in KCK. In his lawsuit, McIntyre claimed since-retired detective Roger Golubski framed him in the 1994 murders for which he was wrongly convicted after the cop sexually assaulted his mother, who rejected his later advances.
In September, Golubski was indicted on six federal counts that accuse him of sexually assaulting and kidnapping a teenager and a different woman in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Golubski, who has not commented on the charges, has pleaded not guilty.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Kathryn H. Vratil granted parts of motions filed by The Star and later KCUR, permitting the disclosure of some documents that were part of discovery in McIntyre’s civil case.
Lawyers for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, and other officers sued by the McIntyres had asked Vratil to reject the media requests, arguing that some of the records are part of open criminal investigations. Their disclosure, their attorneys said, would interfere with “prospective law enforcement action” or prosecution.
In an accompanying affidavit, Richard Harris, a KCKPD major whose division includes the police department’s newly formed cold case unit, said the investigations into 25 homicides were part of discovery in the lawsuit, yet remain open.
In her ruling, Vratil said she would first review any records that lawyers intend to release to the media companies.
McIntyre’s attorneys last week filed a notice saying they may disclose, among other things, records about Golubski’s employment and documents relating to the homicides of about 30 people.
Some of the cases relate to the unsolved killings of Black women in KCK, including Rhonda Tribue, whose body was found in 1998 on a road near Edwardsville. Last year, the FBI offered up to $50,000 for information leading to a conviction in her homicide.
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This story was originally published November 2, 2022 at 10:45 AM.
