Former Kansas City police detective Roger Golubski, 71, was found dead on Monday, Dec. 2 following an apparent suicide. Golubski died the day his federal civil rights trial was set to begin for allegedly using his position in law enforcement to sexually abuse black women for decades.
An arrest warrant was issued after Golubski failed to appear at a federal courthouse in Topeka on the first day of jury selection. After arriving at his house, the officers on the scene reported Golubski suffered a fatal gunshot wound with no indications of foul play, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation said.
State authorities declined to comment on the manner of his death before an autopsy was complete. Federal law enforcement officials told NBC News that he appeared to have died by suicide.
Golubski was charged in 2022 with six felony counts of violating women’s civil rights. Prosecutors say that, for years, Golubski preyed on female residents in poor neighborhoods, demanding sexual favors and sometimes threatening to harm or jail their relatives if they refused. He had pleaded not guilty.
Following his death, U.S. District Judge Toby Crouse dismissed the charges at prosecutors’ request, though a second criminal case involving three other co-defendants remains open. U.S. Department of Justice officials said it’s “difficult” when a case cannot “be fully and fairly heard in a public trial,” but advocates for the women who accused Golubski of abusing them were angry, feeling that they and the community were denied a reckoning.
Up to nine women were scheduled to testify about how Golubski sexually assaulted them while he was on the job.
A former coworker of Golubski, Max Seifert, spoke with reporters about how he had worked for the department from February 1975 until December 2005; his tenure coincided with that of former Detective Roger Golubski.
Seifert stated he retired a year early due to then-Chief Ron Miller’s leadership. “He knew there were problems with Roger Golubski. He knew it, and he did nothing about it,” Seifert said of Miller.
