Kansas
A white Kansas detective accused of preying on Black women for decades faces trial
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A white Kansas police detective accused of sexually assaulting Black women and girls and terrorizing those who tried to fight back is about to go on federal trial, part of a tangle of cases tied to decades of alleged abuse.
Prosecutors say female residents of poor neighborhoods in Kansas City, Kansas, feared that if they crossed paths with Roger Golubski, he’d demand sexual favors and threaten to harm or jail their relatives. He is charged with six felony counts of violating women’s civil rights, and jury selection in his trial is set to begin Monday in a federal courthouse in Topeka.
The case has outraged the community and deepened the historical distrust of law enforcement, often seen as being more heavy-handed in predominately Black neighborhoods.
Golubski, now 71, is accused of sexually assaulting one woman starting when she was barely a teenager and another after her sons were arrested. If a jury convicts him, he could die in prison.
The trial is the latest in a string of lawsuits and criminal allegations that has led the county prosecutor’s office to begin a $1.7 million effort to reexamine cases Golubski worked on during his 35 years on the force. One double murder case Golubski investigated already has resulted in an exoneration, and an organization run by rapper Jay-Z is suing to obtain police records.
Golubski has pleaded not guilty, and his attorney has said that lawsuits over the allegations are an “inspiration for fabrication” by his accusers. But prosecutors said that, along with the two women whose accounts are the heart of the criminal case, seven others will testify that Golubski abused or harassed them.
“Every time I turn around, I’m looking,” said Jermeka Hobbs, who has filed a separate lawsuit against Golubski and is not a witness in the trial. Her lawsuit says she was groomed to be one of “Golubski’s girls” and submitted to sexual advances fearing that he would bust her for drugs. “I’m thinking somebody is after me. I have no peace at all.”
A veteran detective patrolling poor neighborhoods
Fellow officers once revered Golubski for his ability to clear cases, and he rose to the rank of captain in Kansas City, Kansas, before retiring there in 2010 and then working on a suburban police force for six more years. His former partner served a stint as police chief.
Golubski now looks nothing like the influential officer he was. He is under house arrest and undergoing kidney dialysis treatments three times a week. That will limit his trial to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
His attorney, Chris Joseph, said in a statement that some of the allegations against Golubski are 20 to 30 years old, adding, “In public filings, the prosecution has acknowledged that the verdict will turn entirely on the accusers’ credibility.”
But Jim McCloskey, founder of Centurion, a New Jersey nonprofit working to free innocent people, described Golubski in a court hearing as the “dirtiest cop I’ve ever encountered.”
Stories about Golubski remained just whispers in the neighborhoods near Kansas City’s former cattle stockyards partly because of the extreme poverty of a place where some homes are boarded up. One neighborhood where Golubski worked is part of Kansas’ second-poorest zip code.
Crime was abundant there, as were drug dealers and prostitutes, said Max Seifert, a former Kansas City, Kansas, police officer who graduated from the police academy with Golubski in 1975.
A fellow officer: ‘A boys will be boys type of thing’
Seifert said police misconduct was tolerated in the department. He described how informants and Golubski’s ex-wife complained that Golubski was soliciting prostitutes. Golubski also was caught having sex with a woman in his office, he said.
“It’s kind of like a boys will be boys type thing,” said Seifert, who was forced into early retirement for refusing to conceal a motorist’s beating by a federal agent in 2003.
McCloskey said in an interview that Golubski had women “at his mercy.”
The inquiry into Golubski stems from the case of Lamonte McIntyre, who started writing to McCloskey’s nonprofit nearly two decades ago.
McIntyre was just 17 in 1994 when he was arrested and charged in connection with a double homicide, within hours of the crimes. He had an alibi; no physical evidence linked him to the killings; and an eyewitness believed the killer was an underling of a local drug dealer. Golubski and the dealer have since been charged in a separate federal case of running a violent sex trafficking operation.
The eyewitness only testified that McIntyre was the killer after Golubski and a now disbarred attorney threatened to take her children away, she alleged in a lawsuit.
McIntyre’s mother said in a 2014 affidavit that she wonders whether her refusal to grant regular sexual favors to Golubski prompted him to retaliate against her son.
“She, like many people in the community, just viewed the police as all-powerful,” said Cheryl Pilate, an attorney who helped free McIntyre in 2017.
In 2022, the local government agreed to pay $12.5 million to McIntyre and his mother to settle a lawsuit after a deposition in which Golubski invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent 555 times. The state also paid McIntyre $1.5 million.
“That was the thread that gave people some courage,” said Lindsay Runnels, who serves on the board of the Midwest Innocence Project.
Women say they were threatened and mocked
Prosecutors say Golubski drove one of the women at the center of their criminal case to a cemetery and told her to find a spot to dig her own grave. He sexually assaulted her repeatedly, starting when she was just in middle school, leading her to suffer a miscarriage, court filings say.
Once, prosecutors say, he forced her to crawl on the ground with a dog leash around her neck in a remote spot near the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. With no one around, he is accused of chanting, “Down by the river, said a hank a pank; Where they won’t find her until she stank.”
Golubski introduced himself to Ophelia Williams, the other woman at the center of the case, by complimenting her legs and nightgown as police searched her home, prosecutors said.
Williams was terrified at the time because her 14-year-old twins had just been arrested in a double homicide. They ultimately admitted to the crime so police would free their 13-year-old brother, Williams said in a separate lawsuit.
Golubski began sexually assaulting her, alternating between threatening her and claiming he could help her sons, according to court records in the criminal case. The twins are now 40 and remain behind bars. The lawsuit she is part of questions their confessions.
The Associated Press generally does not name alleged victims of sexual assault, but Williams has told her story publicly.
Williams said in her lawsuit that she once mentioned making a complaint. She claims Golubski told her: “Report me to who, the police? I am the police.”
___
Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.
The Colorado Buffaloes are 3-8 with one game remaining in the regular season, a road contest against the Kansas State Wildcats. On Sunday, the kickoff time for Colorado vs. Kansas State was announced for 10 a.m. MT on Saturday, Nov. 29, and the game will be broadcast on FS1. Accustomed to playing the evening games, Colorado will have an early one on the road against Kansas State.
Colorado coach Deion Sanders and his team have failed to meet expectations in 2025, but they are building towards the future with quarterback Julian Lewis taking over the offense as a true freshman. On the other side, Kansas State has also had a rather unexpected season under third-year starting quarterback Avery Johnson.
The Wildcats are 5-6 after nearly upsetting the No. 12 Utah Utes, meaning Kansas State will be playing Colorado with bowl eligibility on the line. Can “Coach Prime” and the Buffaloes spoil Kansas State’s final home game of the season?
The Wildcats offense is known to use Johnson as a runner, a matchup that could give the Colorado defense fits.
Colorado trailed Arizona State 21-17 entering the fourth quarter, but the Sun Devils scored 21 unanswered points in the final frame to beat the Buffaloes 42-17. Arizona State started their run with a fumble by Colorado running back Ronald Coleman, and the Sun Devils never looked back.
Arizona State running back Raleek Brown rushed for 255 yards on 22 carries as Colorado’s defense again struggled to stop the run. Sanders addressed some of the Buffs’ issues after the game:
“Defensively, we’ve got to do much better. We forced turnovers, and offensively, we got to score. Didn’t do any of that. It’s tough. It’s tough to think that we don’t have more in the tank to come up with some things to take advantage of those situations. And that’s situational football, we got to be much better than that, and we weren’t. We weren’t, and we aren’t.”
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Sanders also spoke about Lewis’ development as a true freshman. The young quarterback finished with 161 passing yards and a touchdown, completing 50 percent of his attempts.
“He’s a good kid, he’s a good young man. He has a bright future ahead of him. We can’t just take this game and berate him or whatever, because I think he did some wonderful things last week. He did some wonderful things this week, but you got to understand, he’s a freshman playing against a really good football team, and we’ve just got to do better at capitalizing on certain downs,” Sanders said.
According to FanDuel, Kansas State is favored by 17.5 points over Colorado. The moneyline for the Buffaloes to pull off the upset is currently +680, and the points total is set at 51.5.
Rocco Becht breaks down Iowa State football’s win over Kansas
Hear from Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht on the Cyclones’ win over Kansas.
AMES — Iowa State football won its second straight game on Nov. 22.
The Cyclones took down Kansas, 38-14, in the final home game of the season, two weeks after beating TCU (which was followed by an off week). Matt Campbell’s squad now sits at 7-4 overall and 4-4 against Big 12 opponents.
Here are five numbers that tell the story of Iowa State’s win over the Jayhawks.
1 … as in Aiden Flora’s first rushing touchdown of the season
There were plenty of big moments in Iowa State’s victory over Kansas, with 15 plays accounting for 293 offensive yards gained. And it was a group effort in the ground game: Carson Hansen with 120 rushing yards (and one touchdown), Abu Sama with 67 yards and Flora with 51.
Flora, a redshirt freshman running back who typically serves as a kick and punt returner, put the exclamation point on Iowa State’s win, running 38 yards into the end zone for the Cyclones’ fifth touchdown of the game. He had a punt-return touchdown in the win against TCU.
2 … as in Iowa State has won two straight games
The Cyclones have experienced a series of streaks this year: five wins, four losses and now two wins. Iowa State beat TCU on the road a couple of weeks ago and – coming off the bye week – the Cyclones took down Kansas in the final game at Jack Trice Stadium this season.
3 … as in three penalties called against Iowa State
The Cyclones played a mostly penalty-free game, in contrast to some of their flag-filled contests this season. There were only three penalties called against Iowa State: false start against Jim Bonifas, holding against Brendan Black and pass interference against Marcus Neal.
Of those calls, two came in the third quarter and one came in the fourth, and they cost the Cyclones 30 yards in total.
7 … as in seven passes broken up by Iowa State’s defense
Kansas couldn’t get much of anything going on offense, with the Cyclones defense making it a challenge. Seven different players accounted for the seven pass break-ups: Carson Van Dinter, Kooper Ebel, Tre Bell, David Coffey, Quentin Taylor, Beni Ngoyi and Hunter Sowell.
Marcus Neal also came down with an interception, his second of the season.
10 … as in Rocco Becht went 10-of-10 to start the game
It’s been an up-and-down season for the Iowa State quarterback, and that was evident in Becht’s performance against Kansas. He completed his first 10 pass attempts, going without an incompletion through the first quarter and into the second quarter.
That streak snapped when Leroy Harris III tipped a pass and Becht threw two more incompletions – with another one broken up, this time by Trey Lathan – on the final drive of the second quarter.
Becht finished with a 78% completion rate, going 18-of-23 for 241 yards and three touchdowns – with no interceptions.
Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.
The Kansas State Wildcats are officially entering the “pay-attention” neighborhood. After a 98-77 drubbing of a decent Mississippi State squad last night, the 5-0 Wildcats are starting to appear like a legitimately solid squad…one that could be capable of fun things if they can keep things rolling into the heart of the season.
They’ve got another big test tonight. The Cats will face the Nebraska Cornhuskers for the championship of the 2025 Hall of Fame Classic. The Huskers are also 5-0, and advanced to the championship game after an 84-72 win over New Mexico in the opening game of the classic. The Huskers are led by Fred Hoiberg, who is in his seventh season in Lincoln, and are looking for a return to the NCAA Tournament after winning the College Basketball Crown to end the 2024-25 season.
The last time these two teams met was Dec. 17th, 2023, when the Huskers beat up on the Wildcats 62-46 in Manhattan, a win that snapped a 7-game win streak for the Wildcats over their former Big 12 conference mates. But that K-State team was significantly more offensively inept than the current iteration of the TangCats. These TangCats are lighting up the nets with a return to the “fun” brand of basketball that marked Jerome Tang’s first season in Manhattan. And last night, the Wildcats showed they could even manage some defense more consistently than the final couple minutes.
This will be the biggest test yet for the Wildcats. A win would be a huge springboard into the heart of the season. A loss doesn’t hurt, as long as it’s productive. Can the Wildcats handle the quick turnaround and keep building?
We’ve got an 8:30pm CT tipoff for the championship game of the Hall of Fame Classic tonight from T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, and you can catch the action on NBCSN and streaming on Peacock with Steve Schlanger (play-by-play) and Tre Demps (analyst) on the call.
If you can’t access the stream, the game can be heard across portions of the 28-station K-State Sports Network with Wade Gerstner (play-by-play) and Clent Stewart (analyst) calling the action. The game will also be available online at K-Statesports.com and via the Varsity Network app, as well as on satellite radio at Sirius/XM Ch. 383. Live stats are also available at k-statesports.com, and social media updates (@KStateMBB) will also be a part of the coverage.
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