Called a “dirty cop,” Roger Golubski was accused of abusing women, putting innocent men in prison and terrorizing the black community for decades. (Photo by Carlos Moreno/KCUR 89.3)
This story was produced by KCUR 89.3.
Roger Golubski, the former Kansas City, Kansas, police detective accused of misconduct, criminal conduct and “the grossest acts of corruption a police officer can commit,” has died of an apparent suicide. He was 71.
Police rushed to Golubski’s home in Edwardsville, where an electronic monitoring device showed him to be, after he failed to appear at 9 a.m. Monday in Topeka for the first day of his federal trial. A judge issued a warrant for his arrest and postponed the start of the trial.
According to a statement from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Edwardsville police received a 911 call from a neighbor reporting a shot.
“When officers arrived on scene, they located a deceased male on the back porch who had suffered a fatal gunshot wound,” the statement said. The KBI added that there was “no evidence of foul play.”
Golubski had been under house arrest for the past two years. Under the conditions of his release, Golubski was prohibited from possessing a “firearm, destructive device or other weapon.”
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The KBI said it has scheduled an autopsy and will continue the investigation.
At 11 a.m., the judge met with federal prosecutors. They confirmed that Golubski had died and tried to dismiss the case, which the judge accepted.
On Monday morning, Golubski’s attorney, Chris Joseph, said the former detective was “despondent” over the media coverage.
Golubski is accused of using the power of his badge to violate the civil rights of two women through rape, kidnapping and sexual assault. He is charged under a federal statute that makes it a crime for government officials, including law enforcement, to deprive someone of federally protected civil rights.
Golubski pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, of the Civil Rights Division, and U.S. Attorney Kate E. Brubacher, for the District of Kansas, issued a statement in response to the news:
“This case involved extremely serious charges, and it is always difficult when a case cannot be fully and fairly heard in a public trial and weighed and determined by a jury. The proceedings in this case may be over, but the lasting impact on all individuals and families involved remains. We wish them peace and the opportunity for healing as they come to terms with this development and ask that they are all treated with respect and that their privacy is respected.”
Golubski is the central subject of KCUR’s Overlooked podcast, which examined decades of corruption in the Kansas City, Kansas, police department and the allegations against Golubski.
‘None of us will be able to face our accuser’
On the white side of Kansas City, Kansas, Golubski was considered a legendary homicide detective who quickly rose through the ranks and closed cases.
In the black community he was called the Grim Reaper, the devil and a snake. When the allegations against him arose during the 2017 trial in which Lamonte McIntyre was acquitted of a double murder, people called Golubski “a chameleon.”
His victims have long feared that Golubski would die before appearing in court on numerous federal charges. They were also furious that Golubski was released from prison and allowed to remain under house arrest pending trial, even though the magistrate found the charges “shocking.”
In March, Golubski was even allowed to remain in home confinement despite violating his release conditions by going to a fast food restaurant.
“I am angry and hurt at the same time because none of us will be able to face our accuser,” said Niko Quinn, who says she was forced to give false testimony against McIntyre. Quinn also says that her sister, Stacey Quinn, was manipulated by Golubski when she was just a teenager, part of a pattern by the detective.
Niko Quinn said with Golubski’s death, so many secrets will be buried, and she and others in the community will never be able to know what happened to their loved ones.
Inside the charges against Golubski
Federal prosecutors accused Golubski in September 2022 of violating the civil rights of two women — and possibly seven more — by raping and kidnapping them. One of his victims, identified only as SK in court documents, was only 13 when Golubski began abusing her, she says.
In November 2022, Golubski was charged in a separate federal case with protecting Cecil Brooks, a notorious drug dealer who ran a sex trafficking operation of underage girls.
Along with Brooks and two other men, Golubski faced charges of conspiracy, kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, aggravated sexual abuse and attempted aggravated sexual abuse, including the “involuntary servitude” of two teenagers held captive in an apartment complex. Golubski was accused of raping one of the girls, who was 16 at the time.
Golubski pleaded not guilty to all charges and his attorney questioned the validity of the decades-old and uncorroborated charges.
Golubski, who came from a large family in Kansas City, Kansas, first wanted to become a Catholic priest and attended seminary for high school. He changed his mind, graduated from the police academy in 1975 and eventually retired in 2010.
The claims against Golubski first came to light in 2016 during the exoneration case of Lamonte McIntyre, a then 16-year-old who said he was set up by Golubski to take the blame for a 1994 double murder.
McIntyre spent 23 years in prison and was released as an innocent man in 2017. McIntyre and his mother, Rose, won a $12.5 million settlement against the unified government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, in June 2022.
Although new Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree was crucial in dropping the case against McIntyre in 2017, some of Golubski’s victims later accused Dupree of being slow to investigate cases that Golubski brought during his years as a detective had filed murder cases.
Dupree created a Conviction Integrity Unit in 2018, but the three attorneys hired to staff it were ultimately fired for racist comments.
In November 2022, KCKPD Chief Karl Oakman announced he would launch a review of 155 of Golubski’s cases, and Dupree received $1.7 million from the United Government to digitize the old case files. When pressed, Oakman dismissed concerns that the KCKPD could not be trusted to conduct an impartial review of Golubski’s cases, saying, “Who better to clean their own house?”
But social justice activists scoffed at the internal review, calling it a “major red flag.” Activists have long demanded a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the entire department.
As the case gained more attention, victims – mostly black women – began gathering at rallies, protests and prayer circles. In November 2023, a federal lawsuit filed by five black women accused the UG of allowing “dirty cops” like Golubski to sexually exploit them, running a “police protection racket” and subjecting the black community to “regular acts of humiliation and exploitation. ”
One of the victims in the lawsuit said he was violently attacked by Golubski and asked the detective why he did it. “Because I can,” Golubski reportedly said.
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