After a frustrating two-year wait for victims and social activists, former Kansas City, Kansas, Police Detective Roger Golubski’s federal trial is set to begin on Dec. 2. In its first season, KCUR’s award-winning investigative podcast Overlooked took a deep dive into the decades-long history of his case.
This new season of Overlooked, "Golubski On Trial," will provide regular updates on what happens in the Topeka federal courtroom, during a trial that is expected to run through at least mid-January — barring any delays or serious deterioration in Golubski’s health.
Here’s what you need to know:
The accusations against Roger Golubski
Federal prosecutors say Golubski used the power of his badge to violate the civil rights of two women by rape, kidnapping and sexual assault.
He’s charged under a federal statute making it a crime for government officials, including law enforcement officers, to deprive a person of federally-protected civil rights.
The women are named by their initials, S.K. and O.W. Prosecutors are using the testimony of seven additional women, named as “other victims” or “O.V.” one through seven, whom Golubski allegedly assaulted or attacked, to show that he used the same set of tactics and forced sex acts on multiple vulnerable Black women.
Lamonte McIntyre’s case shed light
In 2017, a man named Lamonte McIntyre was exonerated and Golubski’s investigation, which put him in prison, came under scrutiny. McIntyre was just a skinny 16-year-old in 1994, trying to get his GED and working part-time at a local diner when he was arrested by Golubski and charged with a double murder.
We explored McIntyre’s case in Episode 2, “The Wrong Lamonte.”
Within hours of arresting McIntyre, Golubski had wrapped up the case, saying he had two eyewitnesses — but no gun and no other evidence. McIntyre was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
But Lamonte lucked out when he caught the attention of Jim McCloskey, who is considered the “godfather of the innocence movement.” McCloskey believed Lamonte was innocent and, after teaming up with a Kansas City lawyer, won his release.
Golubski, the would-be priest
Golubski grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, part of the big Polish and Croatian neighborhood. Investigators and prosecutors have long assumed that race was a factor in who he targeted. It definitely played into how he grew up.
He admitted to a former wife that his father was racist and his mother was a member of the Moose Lodge, which had a whites-only policy into the 1970s. He was also very religious and a long-time Catholic.
We went deep into this in Episode 4, “The Chameleon,” which told the story of a young man who wanted to be a priest but instead joined the police, graduating from the academy in 1975.
His work raised red flags early on. In 1978 he was investigated when a 41-year-old man whom he had arrested died in jail. Golubski admitted hitting him with a nightstick, but was cleared.
It foreshadowed how people would later talk about him after McIntyre’s exoneration — people saw alleged misconduct, but wrote it off.
Golubski allegedly used vulnerable women for his own ends
Investigators, defense attorneys and prosecutors have long accused Golubski of preying on Black sex workers and women addicted to drugs. He allegedly used them not just for sex, but as “confidential informants,” so he could make his cases go the way he wanted.
Other cops, a former FBI agent, most of the Kansas City, Kansas, community and McCloskey all knew about this.
The women are at the heart of the federal case against him. There is also a second federal case that accuses him of protecting a notorious drug dealer who was running a sex trafficking operation of underage girls. That case is not part of the December trial, but it is pending and set for hearings next year.
The women tell their story
The woman who was named in the indictment as “O.W.” is Ophelia Williams. She gave KCUR permission to use her name the night Golubski was arrested. She’s come to all the hearings in Topeka for the last two years.
She says Golubski started his sexual attacks on her in August 1999, after KCKPD arrested her twin 14-year-old sons for a double homicide. Golubski told her he could help her with her sons’ cases, but every time he came to her house, he raped her.
Golubski won’t comment
KCUR reporters have knocked on his door many times, and thrown questions to him as he walked into the federal courthouse over the last two years. He never comments.
In one court filing this year, Golubski’s lawyer, Chris Joseph, said the women are smearing Golubski’s character and making unproven claims from very long ago. He said they are in it for the money after watching McIntyre win a $12.5 million civil suit against the Unified Government of Kansas City, Kansas, and Wyandotte County.
'One bad apple' or a larger problem?
KCUR has reported extensively on years of corruption and abuses against the Black community of Kansas City, Kansas, by police, dating back to the 1980s and 1990s.
Golubski had help in the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s office from a prosecutor named Terra Morehead. McIntyre’s lawyers say Morehead railroaded him into the conviction by threatening witnesses by telling them she’d throw them in jail or take their kids if they didn’t comply with what she told them to say.
She told the jury, incorrectly, that McIntyre had a vendetta against the two men who were killed. The judge on the case, Dexter Burdette, didn’t call her on it, and it later emerged that she had had a past romantic relationship with Burdette and didn’t step aside despite the conflict.
Morehead eventually moved up to the federal level and worked in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Kansas. There, she again was accused of ethical lapses, including bullying and intimidating witnesses. In 2021 she was placed on just civil cases.
Ultimately, this year, Morehead retired and agreed to turn over her law license as part of an agreement with a state disciplinary board. The Department of Justice investigated her, and she has now been disbarred.
Kansas City, Kansas, wants more answers and progress
People are happy Golubski was arrested, but angry he was allowed out on home monitoring just days after his arrest. Social justice groups have continued to hold protests and call for a larger U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the entire KCK Police Department.
Overlooked is a production of KCUR Studios and the Midwest Newsroom, and a member of the NPR Podcast Network.
Overlooked is reported by Peggy Lowe and produced by Mackenzie Martin with editing by Madeline Fox and Kris Husted. Mix by Byron Love. Digital editing by Gabe Rosenberg. Special thanks this episode to Holly Edgell, Lisa Rodriguez, and Suzanne Hogan.
