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Per NBC News, a former police detective in Kansas City, Kansas, at the center of community complaints of corruption and accusations that he preyed on Black women was charged by the FBI on Thursday with federal civil rights crimes involving sexual assault.
The retired detective, Roger Golubski, now 69, appeared in court later Thursday on six counts related to rape of a woman from 1998 to 2001 and another woman from 1999 to 2002 while with the Kansas City Police Department, the Justice Department confirms. Golubski pleaded not guilty and remained in custody, with another hearing set for Monday, according to NBC News.
The FBI had been investigating allegations that Golubski, who is white, sexually assaulted Black women in the city and exchanged drugs for information during criminal investigations. He retired in 2010 after 35 years on the force.
The investigation was championed by activists in Kansas City’s Black community and garnered attention from Team ROC, the social justice arm of hip-hop mogul Jay-Z’s entertainment company, which sent an open letter to the Justice Department in January asking why the agency hadn’t responded to its calls to investigate the wider police department.
“We continue to stand in solidarity alongside the people of Kansas City, Kansas, who have been patiently waiting for justice and accountability,” said Dania Diaz, the director of Team ROC. “The arrest of Roger Golubski is a significant step toward creating a safer community and we applaud the Department of Justice for their commitment, diligence and thorough work on this investigation.”
If he is convicted on any of the counts, Golubski could be sentenced to life in prison.
Though Kansas’s Golubski is the latest detective to behave with autonomous reckless abandon, earlier this year it was also discovered in Jay-Z’s NYC backyard that a Bronx ex-detective’s lies led to nearly 500 cases being thrown out.
Changes to how America’s cops operate in the form of police tactics and policies, mostly at small to medium-size departments throughout the nation, driving reforms that community activists, use-of-force victims and city officials have been unable to achieve on their own, the Washington Post reports.
The changes come after increasingly large jury awards and settlements that cities and insurers must pay in police use-of-force cases, especially since the 2020 deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
Information in this article was obtained via NBC News. Read the full report here.
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