Roger Golubski’s federal trial, scheduled for Dec. 2, 2024, grabbed national headlines, just like much of his case had done since the FBI brought charges against him in 2022. But many people had never heard of Golubski before that.
KCUR investigative reporter Peggy Lowe had. She started following the story in 2017, when Lamonte McIntyre, his mother and his lawyer Cheryl Pilate visited KCUR for a live interview with Brian Ellison on Up To Date shortly after McIntyre was exonerated of a double homicide.
“I knew there was so much more to the story,” says Lowe. “McIntyre's case created a narrative that many people confirmed to be true for other KCK residents. So our bosses gave us the go-ahead to chase that.”
Lowe, along with then-colleagues Dan Margolies and Steve Vockrodt, got to work, and eventually dozens of people came forward with information about one particular person: Detective Roger Golubski. KCUR’s reporting uncovered multiple accounts of Golubski coercing women into sex and manipulating witnesses
More incarcerated people from Kansas City, Kansas, said they, like McIntyre, were serving time for crimes they didn't commit. Many of those cases followed a similar pattern — suggesting decades of corruption in the KCKPD.
Ultimately, federal prosecutors indicted Golubski on a number of charges in 2022, including conspiracy, kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, aggravated sexual abuse and attempted aggravated sexual abuse.
KCUR laid out the story behind those charges, and many more allegations about how Golubski wielded the power of his badge, in Season 1 of the podcast Overlooked, a production of KCUR Studios and the Midwest Newsroom produced by senior podcast producers Mackenzie Martin and Suzanne Hogan.
In its first season, Overlooked won several awards, including Best audio project from the Investigative Reporters & Editors; First place, narrative/podcast by the Public Media Journalists Association; and a regional Edward R. Murrow Award.
Golubski, his attorneys and reporters shuttled back and forth to Topeka dozens of times over the next 18 months before the judge set a trial date: Dec. 2, more than two years after his arrest.
As KCUR prepared to cover the trial, KCUR Studios decided the time was right to launch Season 2. Lowe, Martin and Madeline Fox, assistant news director, planned to cover the trial by discussing the highlights, analyzing the nuances and explaining the context of what was happening. The first episode launched a week before jury selection was set to begin.
Monday morning, Dec. 2, Lowe was set up at the courthouse in Topeka, with Daniel Caudill of the Kansas News Service covering a rally taking place outside. At 9:29 a.m., Lowe messaged, “HE DIDN’T SHOW,” alerting the coverage team that Golubski never made it to the courtroom.
The team immediately pivoted, with reporters verifying information with sources from the Kansas Bureau of Investigations and the KCKPD on the ground and over the phone. By 9:50 a.m., a Breaking News email was created and sent to subscribers by audience editor Gabe Rosenberg, and updates were issued on the KCUR website and social media channels by Allison Harris, social media producer.
Photojournalist and morning newscaster Carlos Moreno made his way to Golubski’s home in Edwardsville, Kansas, as work continued to determine what had prevented Golubski from being present at his trial.
How we report breaking news
As we have shared before, KCUR will never report on speculation, which could cause misinformation, panic or confusion. Accuracy is at the core of what we do. Our first priority in a breaking news situation (beyond the safety of our reporters) is to ensure the information we share is accurate and verified by the appropriate authorities. The newsroom is committed to our Ethics Policy, which reflects that of NPR:
"Our purpose is to pursue the truth. Diligent verification is critical. We take great care to ensure that statements of fact in our journalism are both correct and in context. In our reporting, we rigorously challenge both the claims we encounter and the assumptions we bring. We devote our resources and our skills to presenting the fullest version of the truth we can deliver, placing the highest value on information we have gathered and verified ourselves."
Meanwhile, on Dec. 2...
As the rest of the team snapped into action to verify and report Golubski’s death, Lowe called in from Topeka to join the final minutes of the live talk show, Up To Date. This meant that the Up To Date team needed to quickly rearrange its scheduled segments. During that show, Lowe talked about what she’d seen in the courtroom and what she’d heard from sources on scene at Golubski’s Edwardsville home – law enforcement from the city, county and federal government were outside, as was an ambulance.
Martin wrote a script based on the day's news, adding new information as it came in and cutting audio clips from Lowe and Caudill. They’d planned to drop that episode around midday Tuesday, but worked instead to get it out as soon as possible Monday evening – people needed to know about the latest developments, and what it all meant.
In addition to Overlooked, KCUR Studios produces a weekday podcast, Kansas City Today. At the team’s morning meeting, editors decided Golubski’s death would be the central focus.
Back in the field, Frank Morris, NPR correspondent, relieved Moreno on the scene in Edwardsville.
At 11:55 a.m., confirmation came that Golubski was dead of an apparent suicide. By 12:16, KCUR sent a second Breaking News email, updated stories on the website*, put out new social media posts and gave on-air announcers the latest information. Fox also produced a spot for NPR’s national newscasts, and Lowe was invited to join that afternoon’s edition of NPR’s All Things Considered.
* As many news organizations do for public figures, KCUR had prepared an obituary for Golubski — Lowe and Fox had drafted it nearly a year earlier. That obituary was used in the first KCUR story confirming his death.
Newscaster Nomin Ujiyediin worked radio stories from Morris, Lowe and Caudill into afternoon newscasts, complementing the national coverage with local context.
Martin, Fox and Midwest Newsroom investigations editor Kris Husted refined the podcast script, and Fox, Lowe and Martin jumped into a studio to record. Podcast producer Byron Love mixed the episode, which was edited by Rosenberg, Fox, Martin and Husted. Listen now.
Meanwhile, KCUR Studios intern Olivia Hewitt worked with Rosenberg to prepare the Kansas City Today episode for the next morning, hosted by Ujiyediin. Throughout that day and the remainder of the week, news director Lisa Rodriguez coordinated among all of these operations, while also “generally smoothing the way for all of us,” according to Fox.
What happens now?
Golubski’s death means that the prosecution dismissed his case. There is also a civil lawsuit being brought by the women who accuse Golubski of abusing them. And, there are some efforts to win exonerations for a few men whose cases connected with Golubski.
On Tuesday, Dec. 3., Up To Date hosted Kansas City, Kansas, activists along with one of Golubski’s victims, Niko Quinn, who shared that news of Golubski’s death made her angry and hurt. "I was angry because there were so many unanswered questions, for one," Quinn said. "And for two, where's my justice? What are they gonna do for the community and the victim's families that are still here that still have unanswered questions?"
We know that a story about decades of community trauma doesn’t end with the death of Roger Golubski.
KCUR has already started filing records requests and calling sources to determine how Golubski got a gun, in violation of his house arrest conditions. Our community engagement team — Ron Jones, Laura Ziegler and Zach Perez — are working with community members and have scheduled a community listening session for Wednesday, Dec. 11 at 6 p.m. at the 1st Baptist Church at 5th and Nebraska in Kansas City, Kansas.
The session will be facilitated by Up To Date’s Steve Kraske. Portions of the conversation will be recorded and aired on Up To Date on Tuesday, Dec. 17.
Episode 3 of Overlooked will be coming soon. Be sure to subscribe or listen via KCUR’s website: kcur.org/overlooked.
