Former Kansas City detective paid to protect sex traffickers, feds say
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A former homicide detective in Kansas brazenly conspired with three men to help run a sex-trafficking operation involving underage girls, prosecutors allege in a federal grand jury indictment unsealed Monday.
Roger Golubski, a retired 35-year-veteran of the Kansas City Police Department, used his position to shield the operation from police investigations, according to the three-count indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Topeka.
Three other men – Cecil Brooks, LeMark Roberson and Richard Robinson, are also named in the indictment as co-defendants.
Golubski’s attorney Chris Joseph said in an emailed statement: “Roger maintains his innocence and looks forward to clearing his name from these decades-old and uncorroborated allegations.”
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Golubski, 69, retired from the KCPD in 2010 collecting a full pension, and then worked for another nearby police agency until 2016.
In September, he was charged with sexually assaulting a woman and a teenage girl in connection to incidents two decades ago “while acting under color of law,” to commit the assaults, the indictment continues.
Golubski has pleaded not guilty to six federal civil rights charges in that case.
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According to the indictment, from 1996 through 1998, Brooks provided an apartment in Kansas City, where young women were held and where Brooks, Roberson and Robinson used physical beatings, sexual assaults and threats to compel girls as young as 13 to provide sex to men.
In exchange for his protection, the indictment alleges, Golubski collected money from Brooks and was allowed to “choose girls to provide him sexual services.”
The indictment refers to two unidentified victims.
In late September, the Midwest Innocence Project said it was looking into 30 cases they say involved Golubski or other officers in Wyandotte County, where Kansas City is located.
Tricia Rojo Bushnell, executive director of the organization, and other community groups also are calling on the Department of Justice to conduct a so-called pattern-or-practice investigation into the KCPD to determine whether it has a policy of discrimination.
It was not immediately known of Golubski’s co-defendants in the trafficking case had entered a plea.
If convicted of their respective charges, each defendant in the case faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Contributing: The Associated Press
Natalie Neysa Alund covers trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.