Grand Jury Investigates Former Kansas City Detective Who Allegedly ‘Exploited And Terrorized’ Black Residents
A criminal grand jury investigation is underway involving a former Kansas City, Kansas police detective who allegedly "exploited and terrorized" Black people, CNN reports.
According to federal prosecutors, Roger Golubski, who reached the rank of captain when he retired in 2010, targeted residents of the city’s north end for decades.
A 2019 civil lawsuit accused him of exploiting “vulnerable Black women, including Black women who worked as prostitutes,” framing innocent people, and working for a local drug kingpin. He is currently not charged with any crimes and has not faced discipline in connection with the allegations against him.
Stories about Golubski’s alleged corruption are not new, according to The Kansas City Star. The newspaper published numerous pieces about the 69-year-old retired officer about accusations from alleged victims and their members. Some of the reporting detailed Golubski’s connection to Black women killed in in the city.
Golubski first came under scrutiny in 2016 because of his involvement in the double murder conviction of Lamonte McIntyre, according to CNN. McIntyre was freed in 2017 after 23 years of incarceration in a case that the district attorney said was a “manifest injustice.”
McIntyre’s attorneys collected dozens of affidavits that provided alleged details of Golubski’s wrongdoing and corruption, as well as alleged corruption involving the prosecutor and judge that led to his conviction.
Several witnesses said the retired detective was obsessed with Black women prostitutes and used his badge to coerce them.
The civil lawsuit accuses Golubski of providing information and protection to a local drug dealer who paid the ex-detective in cash and drugs for those services.
Federal officials declined comment to both CNN and the Star, citing the secrecy of grand jury proceedings. But at least three people have been called to testify in the investigation including Terry Ziegler, the retired Kansas City, Kansa Police chief who had been Golubski’s partner for three years.
Ziegler told CNN that he had no knowledge of Golubski’s reputation for the alleged misconduct and that he never witnessed any such thing. "They were trying to understand how I didn't know or was I trying to cover up things about Roger that I knew," he said. "I don't mind talking and telling people because I don't have anything to hide."
The case caught the attention of Jay-Z’s Team Roc.
Local station KCTV reports that the rap mogul and entrepreneur took out a full-page ad in The Washington Post demanding a full investigation into the KCK Police Department.
“The police and eyewitness reports of criminal behavior perpetrated by members of the Kansas City, Kansas police department, over the past several decades, are staggering. They detail graphic accounts of rape, murder, sex trafficking and corruption are so rampant and so blatant, it would be shocking if even a single allegation were true,” the ad said, according to KCTV.
