Chapter 4: Roger Golubski, the chameleon

What does it mean for Kansas City, Kansas, to move forward after the apparent suicide of Roger Golubski? KCUR gathered survivors and other community members for a public conversation about the damage Golubski caused, how they felt let down by the justice system and what they want to see happen next.

Roger Golubski was found dead of an apparent suicide on the day — the very hour — his federal trial was supposed to begin. That means that the case against him, which would have featured multiple women testifying about the abuses Golubski allegedly perpetrated, is dead as well. How did this trial fall apart? How do victims feel about it? And who will be held accountable now — if anyone?

More than two years after being arrested, Roger Golubski finally has a trial date set. On Dec. 2, the former Kansas City, Kansas, detective will face federal prosecutors, his alleged victims and a jury over charges that he kidnapped and raped vulnerable Black women using the power of his badge. In our new podcast season, “Overlooked: Golubski On Trial,” we’ll be exploring the history of the case and reporting what happens in the courtroom.

Residents of Kansas City, Kansas, had been sounding alarms about detective Roger Golubski and corruption in the police department for decades. But city leaders did nothing, and Golubski retired in peace while the families of his victims mourned. It wasn’t until a year after KCUR started working on this podcast that the FBI finally arrested Golubski — on just a fraction of his alleged crimes. What does justice even look like after all this time?

Former detective Roger Golubski is connected to a litany of murdered women in Kansas City, Kansas. Several were sex workers who Golubski was accused of abusing and using as informants. But their cases were never solved by his fellow officers, and their families have spent decades without closure.

Who is Roger Golubski? Once interested in being a Catholic priest, Golubski spent 35 years in the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department, which had a reputation for racism and corruption. The secret to Golubski’s career was his use of “confidential informants,” who he cited to secure countless convictions — including at least one person who was innocent. Now, Golubski is facing a federal indictment for kidnapping, raping and assaulting women.

Kansas City, Kansas, detective Roger Golubski started taking advantage of Stacey Quinn when she was only a teenager. Local activists allege this was a pattern for “Golubski’s girls”: The detective would pick up vulnerable women in the neighborhoods he patrolled, sexually abuse them for years, and manipulate them into silence. And just like Stacey Quinn, many of them were murdered.

In 1994, Kansas City, Kansas, Police arrested Lamonte McIntyre for a double homicide he didn’t commit — sending him to prison for more than two decades before he was finally exonerated. Except McIntyre was a mile away from those Hutchings Street murders. As it turns out, the only evidence police had to charge McIntyre was his first name, and the coerced testimony of two eyewitnesses.

After watching her cousin get murdered in 1994, Niko Quinn became one of the eye witnesses who sent Lamonte McIntyre to jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Quinn says then-Kansas City, Kansas, detective Roger Golubski pressured her into submitting false testimony, and she’s been trying to “make it right” ever since.

Former Kansas City, Kansas, detective Roger Golubski is accused of putting an innocent man in jail, exploiting vulnerable Black women, and terrorizing the community for decades. How did he get away with it for so long, and what does justice look like?