Kansas City cop charged for several rapes fights to be released before trial
Federal prosecutors seeking to keep a former Kansas police detective in jail for allegedly preying on Black women and girls have revealed more details of the accusations against him, including complaints from seven more women.
Roger Golubksi, 69, faces a federal court hearing Monday during which prosecutors will argue he should remain in jail until his trial.
He was arrested and charged on Thursday on six counts of civil rights violations alleging that as an officer with the Kansas City, Kansas, police department, he sexually abused a Black woman and a teenager more than two decades ago. Five of the counts allege that Golubski kidnapped or tried to kidnap the victims.
Prosecutors filed a motion Friday that included graphic details of his encounters with the two victims and that added complaints from seven other females who say Golubski harassed and abused them. Golubski has not been charged in those seven cases, but prosecutors argued they provided more evidence that he is dangerous and has shown “nothing but utter contempt for the law.”
Golubski, who retired in 2010, has pleaded not guilty. He faces a possible life sentence on each of the six counts.
His attorney, Tom Lemon, did not respond to a message Monday seeking reaction to the new motion. Lemon argued last week that Golubski should be released before trial because he needs medical attention for several health issues, including failing kidneys, diabetes and recovering from quintuple bypass surgery.
Prosecutors responded in their motion that all of Golubski’s medical conditions could be treated in a detention facility.
“He has spent decades lording his power over his victims and the community by demonstrating how unbound by legal limits he feels,” prosecutors wrote. “The only way to assure community safety is detention.”
The motion alleges Golubski displayed his gun or hit some of his victims with it while demanding sex. He told the victims he would have them or their relatives imprisoned or killed if they ever told anyone what he did, prosecutors said.
The charges accuse Golubski of sexually assaulting a girl more than 10 times over about three years. He repeatedly told the girl, who was 13 when the abuse allegedly began, that he would kill her or her grandmother. He told her he would throw her in a river and sang a version of childhood song with the phrase, “where they won’t find her until she stank,” according to the motion.
The other victim in the charged case, Ophelia Williams, was raped and sexually assaulted several times over two or three years, according to the motion. He initially abused Williams shortly after her two sons were arrested, prosecutors said.
The seven other victims were abused or threatened by Golubski between 1980s and 2004, prosecutors said.
One woman said she called the Kansas City, Kansas, police internal affairs department to report her encounter with Golubski but was told “there was nothing they could do because it was (her) word against the defendant’s,” prosecutors wrote.
The Kansas City, Kansas, police department said Monday that Chief Karl Oakman would not have any comment on the motion. Mayor Tyrone Garner was out of the office Monday. He said in a statement released Thursday that he remained committed to pushing for improvements in police-community relations to restore trust.
Another victim said Golubski sexually assaulted and raped her periodically between the mid-1990s and 2004 while threatening to take away her children, prosecutors said. In 2016, the woman was in the hospital when Golubski showed up and said, “Long time no see,” according to the indictment, prompting her to change hospitals, according to the motion.
Civil rights groups for years sought an investigation into Golubski. The allegations gained attention after Lamont McIntyre, who spent 23 years in prison for a double murder he didn’t commit, sued Golubski and other Kansas City, Kansas, officers. McIntyre and his mother, Rose McIntyre, alleged that Golubski framed Lamont in 1994 because she refused the detective’s sexual demands. The local government agreed in June to settle the lawsuit for $12.5 million.