Former Kansas City, Kansas, Detective Roger Golubski will remain mostly confined to his home before his trials stemming from allegations of rape and sex trafficking, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
Magistrate Judge Rachel Schwartz denied a request to loosen Golubski’s restrictions, citing community safety and the “very serious allegations” lodged against the former police officer.
The decision was met with relief by Ophelia Williams, who attended the hearing at the Frank Carlson Federal Building. Williams alleges Golubski raped her in 1999 at her home in KCK.
Schwartz in September released Golubski, 69, to his Edwardsville home under electronic monitoring — which terrified his alleged victims, they said — and allowed him to leave his house for church, court hearings and medical appointments.
But in December, Golubski’s lawyer, Chris Joseph, filed a motion seeking to remove his condition of home confinement, arguing it was “jeopardizing his health” since he needs regular exercise following a heart bypass surgery. Joseph also took the opportunity to attack the evidence, calling the decades-old allegations against Golubski “uncorroborated.”
In their response, federal prosecutors said the FBI investigation uncovered “scads of women” who made accusations against Golubski, including rape, and noted one of the cases against him alleges “sexual slavery” of underage girls. They also dismissed the notion that Golubski’s health was put at risk, saying “we all learned” during the COVID-19 pandemic that exercise is possible at home.
At the hearing Thursday, Joseph said information contained in discovery documents showed authorities had surveilled Golubski for more than two years before his arrest. Those reports said Golubski made trips to the YMCA, post office, bank and KFC.
“He wasn’t doing anything of concern,” Joseph said. “He’s a typical retiree who does very little.”
Stephen Hunting, an assistant U.S. attorney, did not dispute that Golubski “lives a very boring life,” but noted that the surveillance was not conducted 24/7. He also emphasized that since the detention hearing in September, Golubski has been charged in a second case that involved “disturbing allegations.”
Golubski was first indicted in September on civil rights charges of sexually assaulting and kidnapping a woman and a teenager from 1998 to 2002. He was a veteran cop by then, having worked at KCKPD from 1975 to 2010, including nearly eight years as a captain.
Then in November, he was indicted on separate charges that allege he conspired to sex traffic girls between 1996 and 1998 with other men, including a since-convicted drug kingpin, at a KCK apartment complex. Prosecutors say that as an experienced homicide detective, Golubski protected those criminals from police investigation as they trafficked and raped vulnerable girls.
During the hearing, a representative from pre-trial services said Golubski had been following the rules of his home confinement and recommended relaxing the terms by letting him leave his house but imposing a curfew. That would come with alerts if Golubski was in an area where a witness or victim lived.
But the judge said such notifications would give Golubski an idea of where those involved in the cases reside, since he would be informed if he was venturing too close.
Location monitoring combined with a curfew still poses “a very serious risk to the community,” Schwartz said. She referenced a motion from prosecutors that said Golubski “kept tabs” on his alleged victims, including at places where Golubski could appear to be going legitimately.
In one case, Golubski had met a woman in 1990 after he was assigned to investigate her then-husband in a criminal case. Then he “periodically” sexually assaulted and raped her from the mid-1990s to 2004, according to prosecutors. She moved and changed her phone number. But more than a decade later, in about 2016, Golubski showed up at her room when she was in the hospital, prosecutors said.
“Long time no see,” Golubski told her, according to the prosecution’s motion.
Frightened, the woman changed hospitals.
Joseph, Golubski’s lawyer, declined to comment after the hearing.
Golubski’s next court appearances are slated for March.
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