Judge denies request to jail ex-KCK cop Golubski after fast food stop on house arrest

A federal judge on Thursday denied prosecutors’ request to detain Roger Golubski, an ex-Kansas City, Kansas, police detective accused of rape and other crimes primarily against Black women and girls, until trial after Golubski was caught on camera entering a Culver’s fast food restaurant.

During a hearing in the federal courthouse in Topeka, U.S. Magistrate Judge Rachel Schwartz tightened her order of house arrest for Golubski, saying the former cop is not supposed to be out in the community.

She strongly advised Golubski, a 71-year-old diabetic, to plan ahead for medical emergencies, saying the unsanctioned stop did not align with her house arrest order. And she said she continues to believe Golubski is not a flight risk or that he poses a significant risk to the community at large.

Earlier this week, federal prosecutors filed a motion to revoke Golubski’s supervised release after learning that a person had filmed him visiting the restaurant at the Legends Outlets in Kansas City, Kansas.

Under the terms of his pretrial release, Golubski is on location monitoring and largely restricted from travel to places outside of court and doctor’s appointments.

Christopher Joseph, Golubski’s defense attorney, acknowledged the violation in a court motion this week but said the former detective had stopped along the route between his home and doctor’s office to manage low blood sugar.

He argued Golubski had already been punished by his supervising probation officer in the form of “revoked discretionary leave.”

Golubski, who reached the rank of homicide captain over a 35-year career with KCKPD, is facing life in federal prison after he was twice indicted roughly 17 months ago.

In the first indictment, a grand jury charged the ex-cop with depriving the civil rights of two women by raping them on six occasions between 1998 and 2002.

One of those women, identified in court documents as S.K., told investigators the sexual abuse began when she was a 13-year-old girl. She accused Golubski of raping her more than 10 times and told her grandmother she had a miscarriage while attending middle school.

Another is Ophelia Williams, 62, who has shared her story publicly. She has said Golubski assaulted her in her home, and forced her into sex acts in his squad car as two of her teenage sons were being investigated for murder in 1999.

Golubski is accused of raping others, primarily targeting young Black women and girls in KCK for decades while employed by the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department, where he worked from 1975 until 2010.

Seven more women who were assaulted or fought off his advances — all with “strikingly similar” accounts, spanning between 1983 and 2004 — are willing to testify against him when the case goes to trial, prosecutors have said.

In a second conspiracy indictment, which followed two months later, Golubski is accused of using his police badge to shield 61-year-old convicted drug kingpin Cecil Brooks — and alleged associates LeMark Roberson, 62, and Richard “Bone” Robinson, 60 — from local law enforcement.

All are accused of running a sex trafficking ring where girls were raped at an apartment complex Brooks, a self-described major player in KCK crack-cocaine dealing, operated at Delavan Avenue and 26th Street in KCK.

Details of serious criminal allegations and official police misconduct have hovered over Golubski for years. Many first surfaced publicly in a civil lawsuit brought by Lamonte McIntyre, an innocent man who spent 23 years in prison for a 1994 double murder, and his mother Rose McIntyre.

The McIntyres accused Golubski of framing Lamonte McIntyre, 17 years old at the time of his arrest, because Rose McIntyre rejected the ex-detective’s sexual advances.

Lamonte McIntyre was exonerated in 2017. In 2022, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, agreed to pay $12.5 million to settle the civil lawsuit.

During the federal detention hearing Thursday, Schwartz declined to hear oral arguments as she provided her decision immediately after calling the case. She also noted revocation was an unusual request from prosecutors, saying federal law spells out the specific reasons.

After prosecutors and the defense were given copies of her proposed order, Joseph, Golubski’s defense attorney, asked whether his client would be permitted to stop for gas if needed.

“Get gas and keep going — won’t go inside and stop for a hot dog or anything like that,” Joseph said.

Schwartz said that would generally be permitted, though issued a reminder that Golubski needs to be in touch with his probation officer.

“You may have thought that was OK in the past,” Schwartz told Golubski. “That is absolutely not going forward.”

Outside the courthouse Thursday, Williams, one of the women who has publicly accused Golubski, told reporters she was unsurprised by the judge’s decision. But she says she still has faith justice will be served.

“I believe it is gonna come around,” she said.