By MICHAEL A. SMITH
Insight Kansas
NOTE: This column discusses suicide and sexual abuse. If you or anyone you know have thoughts of self-harm, please seek professional help. The suicide and mental health crisis hotline is available 24 hours per day by calling 988.
Roger Golubski died of an apparent suicide on December 2, 2024, the day his trial was scheduled to begin. His crimes did not die with him.
Golubski was a Kansas City, Kansas police officer from 1975 to 2010. According to the charges filed against him in federal court, Golubski conducted a reign of terror against African-American and Hispanic residents of KCK during that time.
Charges included raping several women, including one 16-year-old, other sexual abuses against women and girls as young as 13, kidnapping, running a sex trafficking ring of underage girls, and knowingly sending innocent people to prison. His usual method of operation was to trap women by threatening to send them or their family members to prison or take away custody of their children if they did not submit to him. His favorite targets included sex workers and mothers who had children facing criminal charges.
It all started to fall apart for Golubski when Lamonte McIntyre was exonerated in 2017. McIntyre had spent 23 years in prison. Only 16 when arrested, he had spent most of his life behind bars for a crime he did not commit.
Golubski had set McIntyre up to take the fall.
Together with his mother, McIntyre later won a $12.5 million settlement against the Unified Government, a figure so large they had to issue bonds to pay it.
During the lead-up to the trial, Golubski’s lawyer accused the victims of only coming forward after the settlement, in hopes of getting money. It was later shown that Golubski faced citizen complaints dating from his first year on the job, but they were all ignored, minimized, lost, or sealed.
Unlike his victims, Golubski was given privileges while awaiting his trial, including house arrest instead of jail. Ostensibly, this was because he had failing kidneys and required dialysis, but Golubski was also spotted going out for fast food during this period.
He was able to subvert release requirements that he surrender all weapons, successfully concealing a handgun in his home. Ultimately, Golubski used it to take his own life rather than face the victims who had been waiting for decades to confront him.
Golubski was only able to conduct this 35-year reign of terror because he was enabled by the KCK police department, along with the Wyandotte County and KCK city governments. Other officers–even those in neighboring cities–knew of his abuses and said nothing. Fellow KCK officers dismissed it as “just Roger being Roger.” Kansas City, Missouri police said, “it’s different over there (in KCK).”
Overlooked
More than two years after his arrest, and after decades of allegedly terrorizing the Black men and women of Kansas.
The investigation needs to be renewed, and this time, the entire KCK Police Department, Wyandotte County prosecutor’s office, city, and county governments need to be investigated.
Unfortunately, this is highly unlikely at the federal level.
Proponents of such an investigation include More2 (“More-squared”), a Kansas City interfaith organization that has been outspoken for years about Golubski. I serve on the More2 Board. We had hoped to wrap up the federal trial before the Trump Administration took office, fearing that otherwise they would drop the charges.
Now Golubski is gone, and some of his victims died under very mysterious circumstances. Yet many of those who enabled Golubski’s crimes are still alive, as are many other victims.
They are still waiting for justice.
Michael Smith is a professor at Emporia State University.