KBI says it shared information with feds on ex-KCK cop accused of abusing Black women
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation has shared with authorities information about “possible federal violations” that it discovered during its own investigation of a former Kansas City, Kansas detective who has been accused of sexual exploitation of Black women.
The KBI said Thursday that its criminal investigation of Roger Golubski, who is also accused of framing a Kansas City, Kansas man for a 1994 double-homicide for which he was later exonerated, started in 2019.
That inquiry focused on sexual assault allegations as well as whether crimes were committed in the 1994 homicide investigation that resulted in the wrongful conviction of Lamonte McIntyre. But the KBI said it turned up no evidence of violations of Kansas law that were still within the statute of limitations.
“However, during the course of our investigation, information related to possible federal violations was shared with federal authorities for their consideration and possible action,” KBI spokeswoman Melissa Underwood said in a statement to The Star.
An official with the FBI was not immediately available to comment. A spokesman with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas said he could not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.
Golubski, 67, a long-time member of the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department and later of the Edwardsville Police Department, has been under scrutiny since 2016 after serious questions were raised about his handling of the McIntyre case.
McIntyre was released from prison in 2017 after substantial evidence showed the KCKPD botched its investigation into the killings of Doniel Quinn and Donald Ewing in Kansas City, Kansas.
McIntyre was convicted at age 18 after a trial in which there was no physical evidence tying him to the scene of the crime. The prosecution’s case was based largely on the vague and unreliable testimony of two witnesses without regard to credible alibis that McIntyre was at home at the time of the murders.
The KBI said Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree asked the agency to investigate allegations against Golubski in October 2017. Months later, the KBI received some 6,000 pages of records that it started reviewing.
In March 2019, the agency initiated a criminal investigation.
“This criminal investigation focused on sexual assault allegations, and whether Golubski committed crimes related to the 1994 homicides of Doniel Quinn and Donald Ewing, in which Lamonte McIntyre was convicted,” Underwood’s statement said. “That investigation continues, but to date we have found no evidence of any violation of Kansas law that is within the statute of limitations.”
There was no answer at the door of Golubski’s home in Edwardsville on Thursday afternoon, and there was no response to a note left seeking comment about the allegations against him. His attorney, Morgan Roach, did not return a phone call or a text message seeking comment.
The KBI’s statement came on the same day that a group of 27 Kansas lawmakers called on the agency to fully investigate multiple allegations against Golubski involving sexual abuse of women and framing people for crimes they did not commit.
The letter to KBI, signed on Thursday by state senators and representatives, said Golubski has not been held accountable despite a series of “very serious and troubling” allegations.
“These allegations have shown a pattern of abuse toward poor, minority (people of color) residents – specifically the people Golubski and his force were employed by taxpayers to protect,” lawmakers said.
Sen. David Haley, a Kansas City Democrat, said at a press conference Thursday that local officials have “allowed this seedy underbelly of abuse of people of color, of those who have been downtrodden, to be perpetuated and continued for decades, maybe even a century.”
“Where are our local elected officials?” Haley asked. “What are they saying at this time, at this hour, when it is readily apparent that these abuses have continued?”
Allegations against Golubski go beyond what’s known in the McIntyre case.
“While Lamonte, and essentially his entire family were victims of a wrongful conviction, there’s more to the story,” said Rep. Cindy Holscher, an Olathe Democrat. “...Other accusers have stepped forward with allegations.”
Court records, in the form of lawsuits and sworn testimony, allege that for much of his career Golubski engaged in systematic sexual exploitation of Black women in Kansas City, Kansas by coercing them into sex through force, with favors, or under the threat of arrest.
In 2018, McIntyre sued Golubski, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas and other KCKPD employees, claiming that since the 1980s Golubski would travel to predominantly Black KCK neighborhoods to coerce sex from women.
The lawsuit, which is pending in U.S. District Court of Kansas, said Golubski’s alleged behavior was well known among the ranks at KCKPD, and the source of jokes about children he was rumored to have fathered in the course of his exploitation against Black women.
“When there are credible allegations with no action taken, the public’s confidence erodes,” Holscher said.
Golubski retired from KCKPD in 2010 and later went to work for the Edwardsville Police Department. He left that job in 2016 as questions were being raised about his investigation on the McIntyre case.
In court filings, Golubski has denied the substantive allegations against him.
Khadija Hardaway, a member of the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity, said the KCK community has three demands.
She said the UG should fully fund a community integrity unit to review allegations of police misconduct, as well as establish a bilingual hotline for reporting abuse.
Hardaway also said the KCKPD should allow for “widespread community input” on the selection of a new police chief.
“We’re not playing games,” Hardaway said. “We have been grieving our loved ones who have been lost at the hands of the Wyandotte police department. The community wants detective Roger Golubski investigated. We have been demanding this for far too long.”
This story was originally published July 2, 2020 at 5:30 PM with the headline "KBI says it shared information with feds on ex-KCK cop accused of abusing Black women."
