Content warning: This article contains graphic details of sexual assault.
Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to detain former Kansas City, Kansas, Police detective Roger Golubski until trial, arguing that “no condition or combination of conditions will assure the safety of other people or the community” if he’s allowed to go free.
A hearing Monday before a federal magistrate judge will determine whether the ex-cop should remain in custody or be released on bond before trial.
In an unusually graphic 25-page motion released late Friday, prosecutors fleshed out the bare-bones indictment unsealed on Thursday, revealing details of the alleged sexual assaults Golubski committed against two women over 20 years ago. (View the full motion below.)
The motion portrays Golubski — who worked for the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department from 1975 until his retirement as a captain in 2010 — as a a cop who relentlessly exploited vulnerable Black women for sex and who threatened to imprison or murder them or their relatives if they ever told anyone what he did.
Golubski was arrested on Thursday and charged with depriving two women of their civil rights in the late 1990s and early 2000s while he still possessed the power of a cop. Golubski pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
The government’s motion argues that Golubski should remain in prison until his trial, despite a litany of health issues that his lawyer says Golubski has experienced in recent years.
Years of abuse
According to the government’s motion, one of the women in the indictment — identified as S.K. — was only 13 or 14 years old when Golubski called her on her cell phone, telling her she was a potential witness to a crime. Implying that he was helping her out, Golubski allegedly asked to meet with S.K. away from the police department, the motion says, because he didn’t want people to think she was a snitch.
S.K. had never met Golubski before and was unaware of what crime she was supposed to have witnessed. She met him in a parking lot, where Golubski was waiting in a vehicle. Golubski allegedly told S.K. “how sexy and attractive she was” and then asked her about her background and family.
The motion continues: “Eventually, the defendant asked her, ‘Do you have Caucasian in you? Do you want some?’ S.K.— who was 13 or 14 years old and a virgin — did not understand what he meant and started crying. The defendant slapped her, warned her against starting 'that crybaby shit,' and told her that she was old enough to make decisions. The defendant offered S.K. money for oral sex; S.K. said no. He offered her a pill, which S.K. also declined.”
The motion then describes how Golubski made veiled threats against S.K. and her grandmother, and that S.K. feared for her life. It then spells out in graphic detail how Golubski allegedly took liberties with her, forced himself upon her and coerced her into giving him oral sex. He warned her to keep her mouth shut or “she could ‘kiss [her] sweet little grandmother goodbye” and that he ran the streets.
A week or so later, Golubski allegedly called S.K. again and once again forced her to have sex with him in his vehicle. The motion says that he assaulted S.K. more than 10 times over the next three or so years, each time making a blocked-number call to her cellphone and arranging a time and place for their meeting.
On one occasion Golubski slapped S.K. in the face, the motion states. On another, he punched her in the face. At other times, he choked her, and once, he struck her with his firearm.
All the while, Golubski threatened S.K. and her grandmother. On one occasion, Golubski took S.K. to a cemetery and instructed her to find an area to dig her own grave, the motion states. At other times, he took her to an area by the river, put a dog leash around her neck and made her crawl on all fours as he walked.
'Felt like she had no choice'
In the case of the second woman — identified as O.W. and who has since revealed herself to be Ophelia Williams — the motion states that Golublski met her in 1999 when he served a search warrant on her house and arrested her teenaged sons. Golubski allegedly made suggestive remarks to her on that occasion, before returning several days later and telling her he could help her sons.
Golubski then allegedly slid his hand up her leg and, when O.W. asked what he was doing and stood up, Golubski stood up as well and unzipped his pants. He then pushed her onto a couch and raped her. Afterward, Golubski warned O.W. not to say anything or he would hurt her or have someone else hurt her, according to the motion.
Over the next two to three years, Golubski repeatedly returned to O.W.'s house, allegedly raping her three or four times, and on other occasions demanding oral sex.
O.W., who is Black, “felt like she had no choice but to submit to the defendant when he would show up because the defendant was a detective who was supposed to be looking out for her sons (he consistently told her that he could help them, that he knew people, and that he often got drinks with the prosecutor); because the defendant had a gun and she was afraid that he would shoot her; and because she was afraid that the defendant knew people in prison and could have her sons hurt,” the motion states.
Golubski, 69, is charged with six counts of depriving the women of their civil rights. If convicted, he could face life in prison.
“The defendant abused his position of authority and trust against the most vulnerable members of the community he was sworn to protect: a frightened middle school student who loved her grandmother, and a mother worried about the safety of her children,” prosecutors wrote. “The defendant did not choose his victims at random; he targeted them because of their vulnerabilities, used those vulnerabilities to manipulate and to threaten them into compliance, and consistently circled back and kept tabs on them to remind them of his power and control over them.”
'Terrorize and traumatize'
In addition to the details about his alleged crimes against Golubski, the document describes sexual assaults against seven other unnamed women.
It says that Golubski engaged in “a longstanding pattern” of using his power as a police officer to “terrorize and traumatize the victims of his sexual assaults,” who were mainly young, vulnerable Black women.
In one instance, the motion states, a woman called Golubski in the mid-1980s for help with a traffic ticket. The unidentified victim met Golubski at his office, where he said he would have the ticket dropped and asked her to lunch.
At lunch, Golubski made sexual remarks toward her and offered to take her to a motel for sex. When she declined, Golubski offered her money, which she also refused.
After leaving lunch together, the woman thought Golubski would drive her home, but he took her instead to a cemetery.
“(The victim) was afraid and began to cry and to pray,” the motion states.
Golubski began fondling the victim’s breasts and demanded oral sex. When she said no, he moved his hand to his hip where his gun was holstered, causing the woman to fear that Golubski was going to kill her.
Golubski made her get out of his car several miles from her home, telling her that if she told anyone about what transpired, “they will believe me before they will ever f---ing believe you.”
Another woman told investigators that Golubski offered her a ride as she walked home with her groceries. When she declined, Golusbki allegedly flashed his police badge, causing her to get into his car. Golubski took her to a cemetery, where he allegedly forced her to perform oral sex on him.
“(The victim) felt pain and felt like she could not breathe,” the motion states.
Golubski drove her home and told her not to say anything. A week later, Golubski returned to her apartment, causing her to become distraught and for her boyfriend to confront Golubski.
A third woman, who was in her 20s when the incident occurred, told investigators Golubski approached her in a park one night where she was walking after an argument with her boyfriend. She said she felt safe accepting his offer for a ride because he was a police officer.
But instead of taking her home, he drove her to a field, where he raped her. Afterwards, Golubski drove her back to the park where he found her, asking her on the way, “Who would believe you over me?” and, "Remember what I said, keep your mouth closed.”
The woman went to a hospital where staff performed a rape kit. Hospital staff called the police so the woman could make a complaint, but she was terrified and left before police arrived. Months later, Golubski asked her if she told anyone, and repeated his warning to keep her mouth shut or something would happen to her brother.
A fourth woman reported meeting Golubski in 1990 when he was investigating her husband. Between the mid-1990s and continuing through 2004, she said Golubski repeatedly sexually assaulted and raped her, and threatened to take her children away.
A fifth woman, 18 years old when she met Golubski during the course of an investigation, said he repeatedly pressured her for sex in exchange for money or for keeping her brothers out of trouble.
Years later, Golubski asked her to come to the police station, where he pulled her up dress and tried to perform oral sex. She pushed Golubski away until he allowed her to leave.
A sixth woman said that Golubski approached her in 2004 and threatened to arrest her sons unless she had sex with him. When she refused, Golubski allegedly said "if she did not want to, he would take her sons down.”
The woman called KCKPD Internal Affairs, who told her there was nothing they would do because “it was (the victim’s) word against (Golubski’s).”
Months later, Golubski approached her and told her to follow him to a parking lot, threatening to write her a ticket when she refused. He told her she would regret not following him, and said he liked “Black bitches.”
She related the incident to one of her sons, who told her that Golubski had been harassing him and his brother. A year later, one of them was arrested.
“I told you I would get him,” Golubski told her after the arrest, according to the government’s motion.
The woman told investigators: “When he talked to me like that, and him being in law enforcement… it was really insulting, degrading… I was angry but I felt ashamed as well… you feel helpless… less than a woman or like you’re nothing.”
A final witness listed in the government’s motion told investigators that around 2004, Golubski asked her to meet him at the city courthouse after seeing her booking photograph following her arrest. He took her to an empty office in the building and told her he could help her by talking to the prosecutor handling her case.
Golubski then demanded oral sex from the victim. When she tried to leave, he allegedly forced the door shut and pinned her in place. When someone knocked on the door, Golubski backed away from her, but warned that if she told anyone, “she would end up in the morgue, and he would cover it up.”
‘More dangerous — not less'
Prosecutors argue that Golubski has connections to criminals, has shown a pattern of threatening his victims, and is a risk to flee if he’s not kept in jail.
Golubski is “more dangerous — not less — today,” prosecutors state.
“The defendant is now charged and facing life in prison, and the investigation has revealed the defendant’s ability to keep ‘tabs’ on and to threaten his victim; his connections to organized crime and criminals; and his facility with manipulating those connections to gain benefits for himself,” the motion states.
Golubski’s lawyer, Tom Lemon, told a magistrate judge on Thursday that his client has significant health issues. He said that Golubski’s failing kidneys require dialysis treatments about every other day, that he had major heart surgery in April and that he’s a diabetic who depends on insulin and other medications.
Prosecutors acknowledged Golubski’s poor health but said his needs could be accommodated in jail.
Prosecutors say in the motion that a lawyer for some of Golubski’s victims said the victims felt the day of Golubski’s arrest “was the first day that any of them have felt any degree of safety in the last three decades."
View the detention motion in full below.
