Ex-Kansas detective dies by suicide as long-awaited criminal civil rights trial set to begin, sources say

(CNN) — A disgraced former Kansas police detective about to stand trial on charges that he kidnapped and raped two women decades ago was found dead in his home Monday morning.

Authorities discovered the body of Roger Golubski, 71, after he failed to show up for jury selection in his long-awaited trial in Topeka, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. They said he died by suicide.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation said police responded to a 911 call at Golubski’s home in Edwardsville just after 9 a.m. where officers found Golubski on his back porch dead of a gunshot wound. The KBI said in a news release that there were no immediate indications of foul play and that Golubski’s death remains under investigation.

Golubski’s lead defense attorney, Chris Joseph, said in a brief interview Monday afternoon that Golubski had steadfastly maintained his innocence and that his death should not be construed as an admission of guilt. He said he did not know if his client left a note behind and said he did not wish to provide any further comment at this time.

The retired detective was accused of using his position as a police officer in Kansas City, Kansas, to sexually assault vulnerable Black women over the course of decades. Prosecutors said in court filings that Golubski hand-picked his victims because he was confident they would never be believed.

Golubski denied the allegations and his lawyers suggested in court filings that his accusers were fabricating their claims or parroting old unproven allegations or rumors.

Following a lengthy investigation conducted largely in secret, federal authorities filed a pair of indictments against Golubski in the fall of 2022. The second case accused him of being in cahoots with a drug kingpin in the sex trafficking of underage girls.

The allegations against Golubski came to light as part of a civil case against him and his former department alleging that he framed a Kansas City teenager for a double murder in 1994. The man, Lamonte McIntyre, was released from prison in 2017 after more than 23 years behind bars. The parties settled the case in June 2022 with county officials agreeing to pay the McIntyres $12.5 million. Neither Golubski nor officials from his former department acknowledged any wrongdoing in connection with the case.

Cheryl Pilate, the civil attorney for the McIntyres, called for a thorough investigation of Golubski’s death by officials with no ties to local police.

“The community was looking forward to justice, to a full and public accounting and now that has been denied to them,” Pilate told reporters following news of his death, according to the Associated Press.

The allegations against Golubski, which date back to the 1980s, roiled the city and prompted a new state law on sexual misconduct by police. Developments were chronicled on the front pages of the local newspaper, The Kansas City Star, and resulted in a crusading newspaper columnist winning one of journalism’s highest honors — a Pulitzer Prize.

Rap mogul Jay-Z’s social justice nonprofit, Team Roc, even took out a full-page ad in The Washington Post characterizing the situation as “one of the worst examples of abuse of power in U.S. history.”

Prosecutors had acknowledged in pre-trial motions that, despite an exhaustive years-long probe by the FBI, they had scant evidence beyond the word of Golubski’s alleged victims to back up their explosive claims. They said the credibility of his accusers would be the “sole centerpiece” of the case against him.

“This trial will turn entirely on victim credibility,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing last year.

Federal prosecutors released a statement Monday following the news of Golubski’s death saying, “it is always difficult when a case is unable to be fully and fairly heard in a public trial.”

“The proceedings in this case may be over, but its lasting impact on all the individuals and families involved remains. We wish them peace and the opportunity for healing as they come to terms with this development,” according to the statement from Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorney Kate E. Brubacher for the District of Kansas.

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