Former Kansas City detective accused of sexually assaulting African-American women and girls released pending trial
Golubski, who retired in 2010, has pleaded not guilty to all charges and could face up to life in prison if convicted.
Photo: Shawnee County Adult Detention Center/Courtesy
Roger Golubski, a former Kansas City police detective accused of sexually abusing African-American women and girls over nearly three decades, will be released pending trial linking two victims who allege they were raped on separate occasions , a federal judge ruled.
Rachel Schwartz, the federal judge in the case, acknowledged that the former investigator’s allegations constituted “reprehensible conduct” and that the facts were truly “shocking,” but she said she was not at as great a risk as when the alleged crimes occurred.
Prosecutors also argued that Golubski could flee, but the judge ruled that his serious health problems tied him to the community.
The 69-year-old defendant was arrested and charged last Thursday with six counts of civil rights violations, alleging that as an officer of the Kansas City Police Department, he sexually assaulted an African-American woman and a teenage girl more than twenty years ago. Five of the six charges allege that Golubski abducted or attempted to abduct his victims.
Schwartz ordered the former detective to remain at home except for religious services and medical care, while being monitored 24 hours a day and not with victims or any witnesses.
Prosecutors filed a motion Friday that included graphic details of their encounters with the two victims and added allegations from seven other women who said Golubski harassed and raped them.
The man has not been charged in connection with those seven cases, but prosecutors said they had offered more evidence that he was dangerous and that he had shown “nothing but a complete disregard for the law.”
At Monday’s hearing, various women were present who said they or their loved ones were victims of the former detective.
Golubski, who retired in 2010, has pleaded not guilty to all charges and could face up to life in prison if convicted.
Attorney Tom Lemon said his client needed medical attention for diabetes and to recover from five-time heart bypass surgery. He also expressed that it would be difficult to provide adequate protection if Golabski remained behind bars.
According to the lawyer, the case requires “intensive” work, since apparently the prosecutors have no physical evidence, only the testimony of the victims.
The filing said the former investigator displayed his weapon while demanding intercourse and told the victims he would send them to prison or kill them or their family members if they ever told anyone what he had done, prosecutors said.
Among the charges, Golubski is accused of sexually assaulting a girl more than 10 times over three years. On various occasions he told the girl, then aged 13 when he allegedly began the abuse, that he would kill her and her grandmother. He told her he was going to throw it in a river and sang a version of a nursery rhyme with the phrase “where they won’t find him until he stinks,” according to court documents.
Another victim, Ophelia Williams, was raped and sexually assaulted repeatedly over two to three years, according to the motion. He initially abused the woman shortly after her two sons were arrested, prosecutors said.
Civil rights activists have sought an investigation into Golubski for years. The allegations drew attention after Lamont McIntyre, who spent 23 years in prison for a double murder he did not commit, sued the former Kansas City detective and other officers.
McIntyre and his mother, Rose, claimed that Golubski framed Lamont in 1994 because she refused the then-officer’s sexual advances.
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