As the U.S. attorney in Kansas in 2019, Stephen McAllister said he asked the FBI to initiate an investigation into Roger Golubski, a former detective long suspected of various criminal activities.
So McAllister was thrilled Thursday morning when the FBI arrested Golubski at his Edwardsville home. He considered it a first step in bringing a sense of justice to Golubski’s alleged victims.
“I’m very pleased and proud that the (Justice Department) pushed this through with the FBI ... because it’s been too long for him not to be held accountable,” said McAllister, who left the U.S. attorney’s office in early 2021.
The indictment, unsealed Thursday, charged Golubski, 69, with six counts of depriving the civil rights of two women. The former Kansas City, Kansas, police detective, who retired in 2010 as a captain, is accused of sexually abusing and kidnapping the women from 1998 to 2002.
Golubski pleaded not guilty at his first court appearance Thursday. He awaits a detention hearing Monday to determine if he will remain behind bars before his day in court. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
McAllister believes there are “many” more victims. Authorities had a list of dozens of potential Golubski victims, but FBI agents learned some had died, while finding others was not easy. Some still feared Golubski or did not trust the FBI, McAllister told The Kansas City Star.
Other women also could not remember approximate dates or locations, which meant pinning down a case that could be proved beyond a reasonable doubt was not an easy task. But McAllister believes the FBI found two survivors who they think are “very, very solid.”
Lawyers who helped free Lamonte McIntyre, an innocent man who spent 23 years in prison and alleges Golubski framed him, also believe there are more victims. In court records, they contend Golubski “victimized, assaulted, harassed” or tried to hurt more than 70 women. That includes McIntyre’s mother, who says Golubski sexually assaulted her in the 1980s in his office at KCK police headquarters.
The two women whose allegations led to Golubski’s indictment gave depositions as part of a lawsuit McIntyre filed, which was recently settled for $12.5 million. One of them alleged Golubski first abused her when she was 13, and that the assaults continued until she was about 18.
Other women interviewed by McIntyre’s attorneys made similar accusations. In a statement this year, one woman whose name is redacted in court records said she complied with Golubski’s sexual demands because she feared he would get criminal charges put on her. He would drive her to his house, she recalled, and the train tracks they crossed scared her.
“If something happened to me, I wondered if I would ever be found,” she wrote.
In 2019, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation started its own investigation. The KBI later said it found no evidence of Kansas law violations that were still within the statute of limitations, but that it shared with authorities information about “possible federal violations.”
McAllister asked that the federal investigation be run out of the Topeka office because of Golubski’s association with the Kansas City region. He went to Washington, D.C., and strategized with officials in the Civil Rights Division on pursuing charges against Golubski.
They discussed the path that led to Thursday’s arrest: the civil rights violations.
The investigation was much broader than simply focusing on Golubski’s predatory activity. But proving other allegations in court could be more difficult, McAllister said.
The Justice Department said the investigation was ongoing. The FBI asked anyone with additional information to call 1-800-CALL-FBI.
It’s possible, McAllister said, that Golubski will be charged with additional crimes. He also said he would not be shocked if other police officers are indicted in the future.
“It’s hard to imagine he did this for 30 years and no other officers in the department ever knew anything about it,” McAllister said. “That’s just hard to believe.”
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