BELLE PLAINE, Kan. (AP) - A coalition of Kansas lawmakers, religious leaders and racial justice advocates called Thursday for an investigation into a retired white police detective accused of preying on Black women for sex over decades and framing for murder the son of one of them.
A letter signed by 27 state lawmakers from both parties was sent to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation asking them to immediately investigate former detective Roger Golubski and other members of the police force who were involved in the allegations of “sexual abuse of women, malicious actions toward citizens, and framing of individuals for crimes they did not commit.”
The letter contends the allegations show “a pattern of abuse toward poor, minority residents,” and says Golubski has not been held accountable.
Joining the lawmakers in signing the letter are several community partners, including the Kansas Inter Faith Action, Mainstream Coalition, Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity, among others.
Complaints against Golubski surfaced in the case of a Black man in Kansas City, Kansas, who spent 23 years in prison for a 1994 double murder he did not commit that occurred when he was a teenager. A civil lawsuit alleges Lamonte McIntyre was targeted because his mother rebuffed the detective’s sexual advances.
Golubski’s attorneys did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Numerous residents have said Golubski wielded his power of his badge to terrorize the Kansas City, Kansas, Black community for years. The local prosecutor asked for help with a probe more than two years ago, but no criminal charges have been brought.
The KBI said in an emailed statement that Wyandotte County Attorney Mark Dupree requested in October 2017 that the KBI investigate the allegations, and subsequently reviewed more than 6,000 documents.
It initiated a criminal investigation against Golubski in March 2019 - focused on the sexual assault allegations and whether the detective committed crimes related to the 1994 homicides for which McIntyre was convicted, said KBI spokeswoman Melissa Underwood.
“That investigation continues, but to date we have found no evidence of any violation of Kansas law that is within the statute of limitations,” Underwood said, adding that information about possible federal violations has been shared with federal authorities.
The renewed push to get the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to look into the allegations comes amid racial injustice protests that have swept the nation in the wake of following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May after an officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck during an arrest.
McIntyre walked out of a court hearing in 2017 a free man after Dupree asked that the murder charges be dismissed because of “manifest injustice.” McIntyre was eventually granted more than $1.5 million in compensation and a certificate of innocence under the state’s mistaken-conviction statute.
No physical evidence linked McIntyre to the crime, and he did not know the victims. The case rested on contradictory and coerced testimony that police and the prosecutor at the time allegedly knew to be false.
McIntyre’s mother, Rose, said in an affidavit that years before her son was convicted Golubski coerced her into a sexual act in his office and then harassed her for weeks, often calling her two or three times a day, before she moved and changed her phone number. She believes Golubski retaliated against her son because she spurned his later advances.
Golumbski worked for the Kansas City, Kansas, police department for 30 years, then retired with a full pension in 2010. After that, he worked for the Edwardsville Police Department before retiring again in 2016.
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This story has been corrected to show that the name of the bureau is the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.
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