A group of social justice leaders on Thursday backed a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by five Black women, accusing the Unified Government of Kansas City, Kansas, and Wyandotte County of running a “government-sanctioned protection racket” that shielded disgraced former Police Detective Roger Golubski.
Team Roc, part of rapper Jay-Z’s philanthropic efforts, joined nine other civil rights groups, including the Innocence Project, co-founded by prominent lawyer Barry Scheck, in filing a “friend of the court,” or amicus, brief supporting the women’s appeal.
Last February, a federal judge dismissed a case brought by Ophelia Williams, Michelle Houcks, Saundra Newsom, Niko Quinn and Richelle Miller, who alleged in their 2023 civil lawsuit that they were abused by Golubski and other high-ranking detectives. They only brought the case in 2023, after Golubski faced federal charges, because for decades they feared him as he stalked, raped and threatened to jail their family members, the lawsuit said.
In dismissing the case, U.S. District Judge Toby Crouse said the two-year statute of limitations for such crimes in Kansas had passed and the women gave no valid legal reason for delaying their claims. Crouse also presided over Golubski’s criminal federal trial, which abruptly ended on Dec. 2 when the former police detective died by suicide.
The amicus brief argues that the statute of limitations should actually begin on the day Golubski killed himself. Crouse’s ruling prevents the women from any justice, the filing says, and the “victims of these despicable actions and threats, predominantly working-class Black women, deserve to have their day in court and to be heard.”
“Statutes of limitations should not be an obstacle allowing manifest injustice to stand when there are ways to reconcile the functions of statutes of limitations with the interests of justice in holding wrongdoers accountable,” the brief says.
The women seek a hearing so the judge can hear oral arguments.
According to the original lawsuit, from at least 1992 through 2006 the UG, which encompasses Kansas City, Kansas, and Wyandotte County, knowingly protected Golubski and others “to kidnap, coerce, pressure, sexually assault, and rape Black women in violation of clearly established constitutional rights." The alleged crimes also included selling drugs, gambling, sex trafficking, prostitution and trafficking stolen goods.
In addition to Golubski, named in the case are Terry Ziegler, a former chief and Golubski’s partner; Tom Dailey, chief from 1989 to 1994; and James Swafford, chief from 1995 until 2000.
Ronald Miller, who is currently the U.S. marshal in Kansas, is also named in the lawsuit. He was the KCKPD chief from 2000 to 2006 and supervised Golubski, along with detectives Michael Kill, Clayton Bye and Dennis Ware, who are also named in the lawsuit.
In addition to Roc Nation and the Innocence Project, these civil rights groups signed on to the amicus brief: Justice Strikeforce, Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, Midwest Innocence Project, MORE2, IMPACT Strategies, Terence Crutcher Foundation, The Gathering For Justice and Until Freedom.
