Kansas

White Ex-Cop Accused of Raping Black Women Dies in Apparent Suicide

Published

1 year ago

December 3, 2024

White Ex-Cop Accused of Raping Black Women Dies in Apparent Suicide

A white former police detective accused of raping and terrorizing women in the predominantly Black neighborhood he was sworn to protect in Kansas City, Kansas, died in an apparent suicide Monday morning just as jury selection was set to begin in his criminal trial in nearby Topeka.

Roger Golubski, 71, was found dead on the back porch of his home in Edwardsville, Kansas, shortly after a neighbor called 911 to report hearing a gunshot around 9 a.m., the Kansas Bureau of Investigations said in a statement. Golubski died from a fatal gunshot wound, the bureau said, and there were no indications of foul play. An autopsy and “thorough investigation” were set to be conducted, the agency said.

At the time he died, Golubski was supposed to be in the courtroom for the start of his long-awaited trial. He was facing six felony counts related to the alleged civil rights violations suffered by two women while Golubski was a police officer in Kansas City, Kansas, during his many years on the force.

Prosecutors said that between 1998 and 2001, Golubski forced one victim identified by the initials S.K. to perform oral sex on him inside his vehicle. They said Golubski also digitally and genitally penetrated the victim without her consent during sexual assaults and rapes that took place in and next to his vehicle on multiple occasions. Golubski allegedly started targeting the victim when she was a young teen in middle school.

Golubski allegedly terrorized his second victim, identified by the initials O.W., by raping her in her home between 1999 and 2002. Prosecutors said Golubski also forced O.W. to perform oral sex on him. If convicted as charged, he was facing a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The second victim, Ophelia Williams, ultimately stepped forward with her full identity and said Golubski first raped her in 1999, shortly after her twin teen sons were arrested in connection with a homicide Golubski was investigating, the Wichita Eagle reported.

“He didn’t want to face the facts, so he decided to kill himself,” Williams said Monday when reached by the Eagle. The death meant she would not be testifying against Golubski as planned. In her straightforward reaction, she said, “I guess that’s what happens to people who do all the wrong stuff they do.”

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Golubski’s death led the U.S. District Court judge overseeing his case to dismiss the charges at the request of prosecutors.

“This matter involved extremely serious charges, and it is always difficult when a case is unable to be fully and fairly heard in a public trial and weighed and determined by a jury. 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 and ask that they all be treated with respect and their privacy respected,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke and U.S. Attorney Kate E. Brubacher for the District of Kansas said in a joint statement Monday.

Prosecutors said seven other women had agreed to testify that Golubski abused or harassed them as well, the Associated Press reports. “There is no justice for the victims,” Anita Randle-Stanley, who went to court to watch jury selection, told the AP on Monday after hearing about Golubski’s death. Randle-Stanley claimed Golubski harassed her as well, when she was a teenager decades earlier, but she always refused him.

The pending trial was part of a larger investigation of the Kansas City Kansas Police Department involving multiple civil lawsuits and parallel allegations that Golubski accepted money from and provided protection to several men who allegedly ran a violent sex trafficking operation in Kansas City in the late 1990s.

Jay-Z’s social justice organization Team Roc has been pushing for further investigation and reform of the Kansas City Kansas Police Department after Golubski’s case fueled questions about corruption or lack of oversight. Team Roc filed a court complaint last month accusing city and county officials of stonewalling their efforts to access public records about alleged police misconduct. The department did not respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment on the lawsuit.

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Kansas

RESULTS: NE Kansas high schools to play Saturday after Wednesday sub-state wins

Published

2 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

RESULTS: NE Kansas high schools to play Saturday after Wednesday sub-state wins

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Below is a look at the results from Wednesday night’s high school basketball sub-state semifinals in Northeast Kansas.

Editor’s Note: This story will be updated with what schools are hosting when that information becomes readily available.

WIBW Scoreboard

BOYS

6A Boys West Sub-State: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Topeka High 57, Washburn Rural 50 (will play Maize Saturday)
Junction City 70, Dodge City 56 (will play Derby Saturday)
Manhattan 58, Wichita-Northwest 56 (will play Wichita-East Saturday)

4A Boys East Sub-State: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Rock Creek 62, Louisberg 57 (will play Bishop Miege Saturday)
Atchison 74, Wamego 43
Hayden 72, Independence 56 (will play Atchison Saturday)
Eudora 76, Santa Fe Trail 68

GIRLS

5A West Girls: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Hays 80, Topeka West 18
Eisenhower 55, Seaman 41
Kapaun Mt. Carmel 71, Emporia 41

5A East Girls: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Shawnee Heights 89, Sumner 15 (will play Pittsburg Saturday)
Basehor-Linwood 74, Highland Park 28 (will play Piper Saturday)

3A Pomona-West Franklin Girls: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Osage City 75, Columbus 31 (will play Frontenac Saturday)

3A Sabetha Girls: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Silver Lake 48, Nemaha Central 26 (will play Riley County Saturday)
Riley County 51, Jeff West 40 (will play Silver Lake)

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Kansas

RESULTS: NE Kansas high schools to play Friday after Tuesday sub-state wins

Published

1 day ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

RESULTS: NE Kansas high schools to play Friday after Tuesday sub-state wins

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Below is a look at the results from Tuesday night’s high school basketball sub-state semifinals in Northeast Kansas.

Editor’s Note: This story will be updated with what schools are hosting when that information becomes readily available.

WIBW Scoreboard

BOYS

5A East Boys: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

KC Washington 68, Highland Park 38
Shawnee Heights 49, De Soto 37 (will play Leavenworth Friday)

5A West Boys: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Topeka West 55, Hutchinson 32 (will play Bishop Carroll Friday)
Emporia 61, Great Bend 41 (will play Maize South Friday)
Seaman 73, Valley Center 51 (will play Hays Friday)

3A West Franklin Boys: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Burlington 60, Osage City 35 (will play Baxter Springs Friday)

3A Sabetha Boys: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Hiawatha 73, Oskaloosa 48 (will play Heritage Christian Friday)
Silver Lake 58, Sabetha 39 (will play Perry-Lecompton Friday 7:30 p.m.)

GIRLS

6A West Girls: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Washburn Rural 60, Wichita South 32 (will play Derby)
Topeka High 69, Maize 45 (will play Liberal)
Manhattan 67, Free State 21 (will play Wichita East)

4A East Girls: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Rock Creek 71, Parsons 23 (will play Tonganoxie)
Wamego 54, Labette County 33 (will play Bishop Miege)
Hayden 2, Athison 0 (will play Baldwin)

2A Eskridge/Mission Valley Girls: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Rossville 71, KC Christian 49 (will play Maur Hill-Mount Academy)
Lyndon 61, Jeff. Co. North 31 (will play Valley Heights)
Valley Heights 65, Doniphan West 41 (will play Lyndon)

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Kansas

Doe v. State of Kansas | American Civil Liberties Union

Published

2 days ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

Doe v. State of Kansas | American Civil Liberties Union

In early 2026, the Kansas state legislature passed SB 244, a law which prohibits transgender people from using public restrooms on government property that align with their gender identity and establishes a private right of action that allows anyone who suspects someone is transgender and in violation of the law to sue that person for “damages” totaling $1,000.

The law also invalidates state-issued driver’s licenses with updated gender markers that reflect the carrier’s gender identity. In February 2026, transgender people across the state received letters from the state Department of Revenue’s Division of Vehicles informing them that their driver’s licenses “will no longer be valid,” effective immediately. SB 244 also prohibits transgender Kansans – or those born in Kansas – from updating the gender marker on state-issued birth certificates and driver’s licenses in the future.

The same day SB 244 went into effect, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Kansas, and Ballard Spahr LLP filed a lawsuit challenging SB 244 in the District Court of Douglas County on behalf of two transgender men who had their driver’s licenses invalidated under the law. The lawsuit charges that SB 244 violates the Kansas Constitution’s protections for personal autonomy, privacy, equality under the law, due process, and freedom of speech.

“The invalidation of state-issued IDs threatens to out transgender people against their will every time they apply for a job, rent an apartment, or interact with police,” said Harper Seldin, Senior Staff Attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Rights Project. “Taken as a whole, SB 244 is a transparent attempt to deny transgender people autonomy over their own identities and push them out of public life altogether.”

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