A former police officer died in an apparent suicide just before going to trial for sexual assault. His case was dismissed, and his alleged victims say they are infuriated.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
When a former Kansas City, Kansas, police detective was found dead from a gunshot wound on the morning his federal trial was to begin, his alleged victims and the community were stunned. Roger Golubski, a white man, faced six felony counts of civil rights violations for allegedly sexually abusing two Black women. The case was dismissed after his death. Now, those who lost their chance to testify and others are speaking out. Peggy Lowe of member station KCUR has this report. And a warning – this story contains information that could be disturbing.
PEGGY LOWE, BYLINE: One of the two women named in the federal indictment against Roger Golubski says she waited 30 years to face him in court. Ophelia Williams accused the former police detective of coming to her home the day her twin sons were arrested for murder. And instead of helping her, as he promised, she says he raped her for years. Williams was denied the opportunity to tell her story in court. Monday morning, just after his federal trial was set to start, she got a call from the U.S. attorney. Golubski was dead.
OPHELIA WILLIAMS: This is a bad damn ending of a movie. Now what’s going to happen?
LOWE: Nothing is happening on the legal front since the case was dismissed. Prosecutors had hoped to prove that he had a pattern of forcing himself on vulnerable Black women he met while on the job, then threatening them or their family if they told anyone. And in a second federal case, Golubski was accused of protecting a drug dealer’s sex trafficking operation of underage girls. He had pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Now the former police officer’s death has triggered a flood of questions and speculation from the women who say he assaulted them, including Williams.
WILLIAMS: And my first thought was, where is the body? I want to see the body.
LOWE: Golubski’s death is being investigated by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, which said no foul play was suspected. In a statement released last Thursday, the agency said an autopsy noted a single gunshot wound to the temple but that a final determination will take 12 weeks. Golubski was arrested by the FBI in 2022. Many were infuriated when he was allowed to stay at home on an electronic monitor as he had been for two years. Under terms of his pre-trial release, he was barred from having a firearm.
NIKKI RICHARDSON: Was it suicide, or, you know, how exactly did he have a gun in his possession when he was supposed to be on house arrest?
LOWE: Nikki Richardson, who sits on a local law enforcement advisory board, said the community’s questions reflect the decades of distrust between the Black community and the Kansas City, Kansas, Police.
RICHARDSON: Who was supposed to be with him during that time? You know, how was he expected to get to court? You know, was there not a lawyer there that morning? Was there not a caretaker?
LOWE: When Golubski didn’t show last Monday, his lawyer told the federal judge that Golubski was, quote, “despondent” about media coverage of the case. If convicted, he faced life in prison.
Golubski was infamous in the Black community for decades, not only accused of sexually abusing Black women, but also of locking up innocent Black men. Niko Quinn, who says Golubski forced her into giving false testimony to get a Black man wrongfully convicted in the 1990s, wonders why elected officials didn’t take action while Golubski was on the job and aren’t being outspoken now.
NIKO QUINN: You’re supposed to make them wrongs right. Why are you not saying anything? Why are you silent? Why are y’all silent? What secrets are y’all keeping from us?
LOWE: Rick Behrens, a presbyterian pastor who’s been a social activist in Kansas City, Kansas, for years, says, people’s hope for justice is gone.
RICK BEHRENS: Because of the whole hypocrisy of this system that allowed a white cop who rigged an entire system against young Black men and young Black women.
LOWE: Now many in the community are reiterating their call for a larger investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice to look into the entire city Police Department. For NPR News, I’m Peggy Lowe in Kansas City.
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