Justice sometimes takes a very long time, but it has finally been served in the case of a former detective for the Kansas City Police Department accused of sexual assault.
Former Detective Roger Golubski, was arrested by FBI agents on Thursday at his Edwardsville home. He was arrested after a grand jury indicted him on Wednesday. The jury charged him with six counts of civil rights deprivations, offenses that date back to 1998.
The two individuals he assaulted were identified as S.K and O.W, who allege they were sexually assaulted by Golubski in 1998 and 1999, respectively. The six-count indictment includes sexual assault and attempted kidnapping.
Golubski is accused of forcibly performing sex acts on S. K in his car. O.W accused Golubski of sexually assaulting him while in his house.
A resident who witnessed Golubski’s arrest said they saw about six vehicles pull up to his home at around 6:30 am on Thursday and later saw him taken into custody by the FBI.
Mr. Golubski appeared before US Magistrate Judge Rachel Schwartz on Thursday in Topeka, Kansas and entered a non-guilty plea.
The federal prosecutor wants Golubski to remain in custody until his hearing. Tom Lemon, Golubski’s lawyer, argued against it, stating that his client has severe health complications with his kidneys and needs dialysis at least three days a week. Golubski had heart surgery last year and is also a diabetic.
The judge agreed to temporary detention, pending a hearing on Monday to discuss whether the defendant would be detained until his trial.
The FBI has been investigating the 69-year-old for more than a year. In January last year, they obtained subpoenas from a federal jury, forcing the Kansas City Police Department to hand over records of internal affairs reports, informant files, and homicide cases covering at least two decades of the years Golubski worked as a detective for the police department until his retirement in 2010.
For the 35 years that he had worked for the department, Golubski had been accused numerous times of terrorizing the city’s black community, sexually assaulting women, and even exchanging drugs for information.
Kansas City and Wyandotte County agreed to a $12.5 million settlement for a lawsuit brought against the city by Lamonte McIntyre, who was convicted of a double homicide he did not commit. The lawsuit claimed that Golubski had framed him for the homicides in 1994, and McIntyre spent more than 24 years in jail.
Niko Quinn, who had allegedly been forced to lie about the murders by Golubski, said that the former detective had been haunting her life even before the murders in 1994 and that his arrest means she can finally breathe and be at peace.
Numerous Kansas City activists pushing for Golubski’s conviction were delighted to hear of his arrest, saying that the arrest was long overdue and well deserved. Tricia Bushnell, the Midwest Innocence Project director, said that Golubski’s arrest was only the beginning of systemic accountability for police officers who continue to abuse their power.
The Wyandotte County district attorney, Mark Dupree said in a statement that they had worked very hard with the FBI and other agencies to bring justice to the matter since 2017.
Kansas City mayor, Tyrone Garner also said in a statement that although the arrest brought short-term comfort, it was not the end and that he welcomed any investigations into criminal misconduct by anyone in the state.
