A former police detective in Kansas City, Ks. faces federal charges of conspiring with local drug dealers to force underage girls into “involuntary sexual servitude” in the mid-1990s. Federal prosecutors say Roger Golubski, 69, took protection payments from three men who used an apartment building as a base for criminal activities, including prostitution and drug dealing. Golubski also is accused of sexually assaulting girls, ranging in age from 13 to 17, from 1996 to 1998, reports the Washington Post. Golubski is a white male and most of his alleged victims were Black. Community activists and legal advocates have demanded for years that Golubski face accountability, saying he terrorized Black residents in poor areas of the city for decades. The three other men connected to Golubski and the apartment building — Cecil Brooks, who is serving an 18-year federal prison term for conspiring to sell crack cocaine, LeMark Roberson and Richard Robinson — also were charged in the new case. Golubski was seen taking money from Brooks, who allegedly allowed the detective “to choose girls to provide him sexual services,." In one instance, Golubski forced a 16-year-old into sex “even though he acknowledged that she did not look like she was happy,” prosecutors said. Brooks also is accused of paying off law enforcement officers to warn him when police were preparing to raid the apartment.
The charges are the latest in an expanding web of alleged misconduct stemming from Golubski’s 35 years in the police department. The FBI launched a criminal investigation into Golubski in 2019, two years after Lamonte McIntyre, a Black man who spent 23 years in prison on a double murder conviction in 1995, was exonerated after his lawyers presented evidence that Golubski had set him up. In September, the Justice Department charged Golubski with violating the federal civil rights of two Black women, one of whom was a minor at the time, by allegedly raping them. Golubski, who retired in 2010, has pleaded not guilty to those charges. Chris Joseph, Golubski’s attorney, said, “Roger maintains his innocence and looks forward to clearing his name from these decades-old and uncorroborated allegations.” The Midwest Innocence Project and the law firm of Morgan Pilate, which represented McIntyre, said: “We are grateful for the continued vigorous efforts of federal law enforcement to hold accountable anyone responsible for such horrific crimes, which targeted the most vulnerable of victims." .