Wyandotte County will pay $12.5M to Lamonte McIntyre, wrongly imprisoned for 23 years

The Unified Government of Wyandotte County will pay $12.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Lamonte McIntyre, an innocent man who spent 23 years in prison, and his mother, who alleged a Kansas City, Kansas, detective framed her son after she rejected his sexual advances.

The settlement was unanimously approved by the UG’s board of commissioners Thursday night, marking an end to years of litigation. The McIntyres had initially sought a combined $123 million in damages, the majority of which was pursued for his wrongful imprisonment.

Lamonte McIntyre, who was arrested at age 17, was exonerated and released from prison in 2017 after he was convicted of a 1994 double murder he did not commit. The next year, he and his mother, Rose McIntyre, filed their lawsuit in the U.S. District of Kansas, contending that the Unified Government and several police officers were responsible for violating their civil rights.

“Lamonte McIntyre was first arrested 28 years, 2 months and 15 days ago for a double homicide that he had nothing to do with,” his attorneys said in a statement Thursday. “Lamonte now hopes to put this painful chapter behind him and move forward with his life.”

McIntyre remains “deeply committed to the cause of justice, particularly in Wyandotte County,” his lawyers said, and will continue to be a voice for those who have endured injustices.

Commissioner Gayle Townsend, District 1, noted that the Unified Government was not admitting wrongdoing by approving the settlement. She said there was “sadly” a need for the settlement, calling it “an expensive choice.”

The McIntyres’ lawsuit brought to light allegations of egregious misconduct against Roger Golubski, a former detective who investigated the case that led to McIntyre’s wrongful conviction: the April 15, 1994, execution-style slayings of Doniel Quinn, 21, and Donald Ewing, 34.

The McIntyres accused Golubski of using his badge to extort vulnerable Black women for sexual favors and coercing them into fabricating testimony to clear cases he investigated. He had a reputation, they said, for “putting cases” on innocent people to protect drug dealers who paid him with money and drugs, which he, in turn, used to “operate his network of female informants.”

Rose McIntyre’s nightmare began, her lawyers say, in the late 1980s, when Golubski threatened to arrest her and her boyfriend if she did not comply with his sexual demands. Golubski sexually assaulted her at KCKPD and then harassed her for weeks, saying he would pay her for a long-term sexual agreement, they claimed. Instead, she moved and changed her phone number.

“By moving, Rose thought that she had permanently escaped Golubski and prevented him from ever harming her or her family again,” the McIntyres’ lawyers wrote in the lawsuit. “She was wrong. Several years later, Golubski orchestrated the wrongful conviction of her son Lamonte.”

In court records, Golubski, now 69, denied coercing witnesses or engaging in criminal activity. His attorneys have also argued that the investigative methods used to convict McIntyre met standards of the time.

During a 2020 deposition, Golubski was asked if he understood he was being accused of “some of the grossest acts of corruption a police officer can commit.” He declined to respond 555 times.

“On the advice of my attorney, I invoke my Fifth Amendment Constitutional Rights,” Golubski mostly replied, reading from a pre-written response.

The allegations against Golubski go beyond the McIntyres. Among other crimes, he has been accused of raping a teenage girl in his police car and sabotaging additional murder cases.

Golubski retired in 2010 from the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department as a captain after 35 years on the force. After leaving KCK police, and collecting a full pension, Golubski went to the Edwardsville Police Department, where he worked as a detective until 2016.

Lamonte McIntyre was freed in October 2017 after Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree stopped contesting the facts of his innocence during a hearing. The state of Kansas later awarded him a certificate of innocence and $1.55 million.

After his release, McIntyre co-founded Miracle of Innocence, an Overland Park-based organization that aims to assist exonerees, along with Darryl Burton, who spent 24 years in prison after he was wrongly convicted in a St. Louis killing.

In 2019, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation launched an investigation into Golubski. It later said it shared with authorities information about “possible federal violations.”

Then in October 2021, news broke that a federal grand jury was investigating Golubski. In response to the development, KCKPD said it had been responding to subpoenas from the FBI since 2019.

The Unified Government earlier this year warned bond investors that the McIntyres’ lawsuit could “adversely affect” its finances in the future.

UG commissioners approved the settlement just days after U.S. District Judge Kathryn Vratil ruled that the McIntyres’ claims against other officers involved in the homicide investigation could go to trial. Among other things, she determined that reasonable jurors could infer those detectives “went along with a fabricated narrative which implicated McIntyre and coerced witnesses to give statements consistent with a narrative that each of them knew was false.”

Wrongful convictions have led to significant payouts across the country. Last month, for example, the City Council in Chicago approved a $14.25 million settlement for an exonerated man who years earlier was coerced into confessing to a double murder, even though police’s own records showed he could not have committed the killings because he was in custody at the time.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.