Roger Golubski, the former Kansas City, Kansas, Police detective accused of misconduct, criminal behavior and “the grossest acts of corruption a police officer can commit,” has died of an apparent suicide. He was 71.
Police rushed to Golubski's home in Edwardsville, where an electronic monitoring device showed he was located, after he failed to appear for the first day of his federal trial in Topeka at 9 a.m. Monday morning. A judge issued a warrant for his arrest and delayed the start of trial.
According to a statement from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Edwardsville Police received a 911 call from a neighbor reporting a gunshot.
"When officers arrived on scene, they located a deceased male on the back porch, who had sustained a fatal gunshot wound," the statement read. The KBI added that there were "no indications of foul play."
Golubski had been confined on house arrest for the last two years. Under the conditions of his release, Golubski was prohibited from possessing a "firearm, destructive device or other weapon."
The KBI said it's scheduled an autopsy and will continue to investigate.
At 11 a.m., the judge convened with federal prosecutors. They confirmed Golubski had died and moved to dismiss the case, which the judge accepted.
On Monday morning, Golubski's lawyer, Chris Joseph, said the former detective was “despondent” about media coverage.
Golubski is accused of using the power of his badge to violate the civil rights of two women by rape, kidnapping and sexual assault. He’s charged under a federal statute making it a crime for government officials, including law enforcement officers, to deprive a person of federally-protected civil rights.
Golubski pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, of the Civil Rights Division, and U.S. Attorney Kate E. Brubacher, for the District of Kansas, issued a statement in response to the news:
“This matter involved extremely serious charges, and it is always difficult when a case is unable to be fully and fairly heard in a public trial and weighed and determined by a jury. The proceedings in this case may be over, but its lasting impact on all the individuals and families involved remains. We wish them peace and the opportunity for healing as they come to terms with this development and ask that they all be treated with respect and their privacy respected.”
Golubski is the central subject of KCUR's Overlooked podcast, which investigated decades of corruption in the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department and the allegations against Golubski.
'None of us will be able to face our accuser'
On the white side of Kansas City, Kansas, Golubski was considered a legendary homicide detective who rose quickly through the ranks and closed cases.
In the Black community, he was called the Grim Reaper, the devil, and a snake. Once the accusations against him arose during the 2017 trial exonerating Lamonte McIntyre of a double homicide he didn't commit, people called Golubski "a chameleon."
His victims have long feared Golubski would die before he went to trial on a host of federal charges. They were also furious that Golubski was released from prison and allowed to remain on house arrest while awaiting trial, even though the magistrate found the allegations “shocking.”
In March, Golubski was even allowed to remain on home detention despite violating his pre-trial release conditions by going to a fast-food restaurant. However, the court modified Golubski's terms of release to explicitly restrict his movement outside the house, except for employment, religious services, medical treatment, attorney visits, or court appearances.
Outside the U.S. district courthouse in Topeka, dozens of protesters, activists and community members gathered in below-freezing temperatures Monday morning as the trial was set to begin.
The rally was organized by MORE2, a Kansas City-based nonprofit that advocates for racial equality.
After news broke of Golubski’s death, MORE2 executive director Lora McDonald said she was disappointed that his alleged victims would never see him stand trial.
“To think he was in control this whole time, and he was in control of this last moment, it’s kind of too much," she said. “We’ve worked so hard to see some kind of justice. His victims don’t get their day.”
McDonald says MORE2 will continue to call for accountability in other cases of alleged abuse or misconduct at Kansas City-area police departments.
"I am angry and hurt at the same time because none of us will be able to face our accuser," said Niko Quinn, who says she was forced to give false testimony against McIntyre. Quinn also says her sister, Stacey Quinn, had been manipulated by Golubski beginning when she was only a teenager, part of a pattern by the detective.
Niko Quinn said with Golubski's death, so many secrets will be buried, and she and others in the community will never be able to know what happened to their loved ones.
McIntyre himself, who won his freedom in 2017, said in a video on social media that he had hoped to see Golubski face the same kind of scrutiny and embarrassment that he went through, during his wrongful prosecution three decades ago.
But McIntyre emphasized that as a Kansas City, Kansas Police officer, Golubski "did not act alone."
"For that much attention to be on one person, if anybody think that one person was responsible for all of that damage — this is not over just because this man supposedly had took his own life," McIntyre said.
Inside the charges against Golubski
Federal prosecutors charged Golubski in September 2022 with violating the civil rights of two women — and possibly seven more — by raping and kidnapping them. One of his victims, identified only as S.K. in court documents, was just 13 when she says Golubski started abusing her.
In November 2022, Golubski was charged in a separate federal case with protecting Cecil Brooks, a notorious drug dealer who was running a sex trafficking operation of underage girls.
Along with Brooks and two other men, Golubski faced conspiracy, kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, aggravated sexual abuse and attempted aggravated sexual abuse, including the "involuntary servitude" of two teenagers who were held captive at an apartment complex. Golubski was accused of raping one of the girls, who was 16 at the time.
Golubski pleaded not guilty to all charges and his attorney questioned the validity of the decades-old and uncorroborated allegations.
From a large extended Kansas City, Kansas, family, Golubski first wanted to become a Catholic priest and went to seminary for high school. He changed his mind, graduating from the police academy in 1975 and finally retiring in 2010.
The claims against Golubski first surfaced in 2016 during the exoneration case of Lamonte McIntyre, a then-16-year-old who said he was set up by Golubski to take the fall for a 1994 double homicide.
McIntyre spent 23 years in prison and was released as an innocent man in 2017. McIntyre and his mother, Rose, won a $12.5 million settlement against the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, in June 2022.
Although the new Wyandotte County District Attorney, Mark Dupree, was crucial in dropping the case against McIntyre in 2017, some of Golubski’s victims accused Dupree of later being slow to investigate cases brought by Golubski during his years as a homicide detective.
Dupree established a Conviction Integrity Unit in 2018, but the three attorneys who were hired to staff it were ultimately fired for racist remarks.
In November 2022, KCKPD Chief Karl Oakman announced that he was launching a review of 155 of Golubski’s cases, and Dupree got $1.7 million from the Unified Government to digitize the old case files. When pressed, Oakman brushed aside concerns that KCKPD couldn’t be trusted to conduct an impartial review of Golubski’s cases, saying, “Who better to clean their own house?”
But social justice activists scoffed at the internal review, calling it a “major red flag.” Activists have long demanded a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the entire department.
As the case gained more attention, victims — mostly Black women — started to congregate at rallies, protests and prayer circles. In November 2023, a federal lawsuit filed by five Black women accused the UG of allowing “dirty cops” like Golubski to sexually exploit them, run a “police protection racket,” and subject the Black community to “regular acts of humiliation and exploitation.”
One of the victims in the lawsuit recounted being violently assaulted by Golubski, and asking the detective why he was doing it. “Because I can,” Golubski reportedly said.
Frank Morris, Carlos Moreno and Daniel Caudill contributed reporting.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text the suicide and crisis lifeline at 988, or go online to chat at 988lifeline.org.
