KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Former Kansas City, Kansas, police detective Roger Golubski has been released from custody Monday after he was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation last week.

Golubski was indicted by a federal grand jury on six charges of deprivation of civil rights. Court documents say he used his authority as an officer to violate two women’s civil rights, sexually assaulting the women between 1998 and 2002. 

The former KCK detective had his first court hearing last week where a court-appointed attorney entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. If convicted of any of the counts, Golubski could be sentenced to life in prison.

Golubski was in court again Monday for a detention hearing after federal prosecutors entered a motion last week to put Golubski behind bars until the trial.

U.S. District Court Judge Rachel Schwartz said she considered 16 factors when making her decision.

Ultimately, it appears that it came down to Golubski’s health. The 69-year-old has renal failure, just had a heart bypass this spring and is insulin-dependent.

Schwartz said if the charges had been filed when he had fewer health concerns or when he was still a police officer, he would pose a different risk and might have remained in jail.

Instead, Golubski will be under house arrest. He will only be allowed to go to doctor’s appointments, church, meetings with his attorney and court hearings. He has to stay in Kansas, with the exception of one doctor’s appointment in Missouri, which he may be able to attend.

Golubski will be required to wear an ankle monitor and will not be allowed to have any firearms, the judge said.

“Golubski is free because he’s white. Golubski’s free because he’s a cop, Golubski is free because our system is racist,” Lucas Behrens, MORE2 Community Organizer, said. “It is the court choosing to value Golubski’s life over the lives of his victims.”

Other alleged victims

Court documents that federal prosecutors filed in their detention motion detail decades of alleged abuse, including information on seven victims not disclosed in the indictment charges.

The motion said the prosecution believes that Golubski, “engaged in a longstanding pattern of using his position as a law enforcement officer to terrorize and traumatize the victims of his sexual assaults, primarily young Black women in vulnerable positions whom the defendant exploited.”

Golubski has not been charged in those seven cases, but prosecutors argued they provided more evidence that he is dangerous and has shown “nothing but utter contempt for the law.”

Previous lawsuit

Civil rights groups for years sought an investigation into Golubski’s conduct, especially after the former detective was accused of framing an innocent man for murder in 1994.

A lawsuit filed in 2018 accused Golubski of forcing a sexual relationship onto then 17-year-old Lamonte McIntyre’s mother, Rose. When she refused, the lawsuit alleged Golubski framed Lamonte for a double murder.

“Until that man is behind bars I’m not going to rest I sat in the place for 23 years. I don’t want revenge I want accountability,” Lamonte McIntyre said Monday.

McIntyre served 23 years in prison before a judge vacated his convictions. He was released in 2017, and the state of Kansas awarded him $1.5 million as compensation for the time he wrongfully spent behind bars.

McIntyre and his mother settled that wrongful imprisonment lawsuit against Wyandotte County for $12.5 million earlier this summer.