A former Kansas police detective who had been accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting two women over several years while on duty was found dead Monday, the first day of his trial on federal civil rights charges.

Roger Golubski, 71, died of a fatal gunshot wound at his home in Edwardsville, west of Kansas City, Kansas, according to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. The police had responded to a 911 call reporting the sound of a gunshot and found Golubski dead on his back porch, the bureau said, adding that there were no signs of foul play.

Golubksi had been scheduled to appear in a federal courtroom in Topeka, Kansas, on Monday morning for the start of jury selection. Prosecutors later told the judge that Golubski had died and requested that the case be dismissed, The Associated Press reported.

His lawyer, Christopher Joseph, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In court Monday, Joseph told the judge that his client, who faced a maximum sentence of life in prison, “was despondent about the media coverage,” according to CNN.

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Golubski Suspected of Raping, Terrorizing Black Women

Golubski, who retired from the Police Department in Kansas City, Kansas, in 2010 after 35 years on the force, had long been suspected of raping and terrorizing Black women as he patrolled the streets. A former police officer and captain, he was accused of sexually assaulting two women multiple times from 1998 to 2002, and he was indicted in 2022 on six federal counts of civil rights violations. He had pleaded not guilty.

Activists and residents in Kansas City told The New York Times in 2022 that they had long believed Golubski, who was white, had abused his position on the force to prey on Black women, and that they believed his actions had gone unpunished for decades.

The allegations against Golubski gained steam after Lamonte McIntyre, who had been imprisoned for 23 years for a crime he didn’t commit, accused the former detective of framing him for a double murder.

McIntyre also claimed in a wrongful conviction lawsuit against Golubski and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, that the former police detective sexually assaulted Black women, including his mother, according to the AP. The unified government agreed to settle the case for $12.5 million in June 2022, the AP reported.

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More Come Out Against Golubski

After the lawsuit was filed, at least seven more women came forward accusing Golubski of demanding sexual favors.

One of the women at the center of the Justice Department’s case, Ophelia Williams, claimed that Golubski came to her home after her twin sons were charged in connection with a murder. After implying that he could help with the case, Golubski touched her leg and tried to touch her under her skirt, she said.

When she pushed his hand away, Williams told the Times in an interview in 2022, Golubski grew more aggressive, threw her on the couch and raped her. She said Golubski raped her at least three more times in her house.

“Some say, ‘Why didn’t you call the police?’” Williams said in the 2022 interview. “Hell, he is the police. The police is there already.”

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Golubski was arrested in September 2022. Two months later, the Justice Department filed additional charges against Golubski, accusing him of helping three other men run a sex trafficking operation that preyed on underage girls in the 1990s.

“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,” Kristen Clarke, an assistant attorney general who leads the Justice Department’s civil rights division, and Kate E. Brubacher, U.S. attorney for the District of Kansas, said in a statement Monday. “The proceedings in this case may be over, but its lasting impact on all the individuals and families involved remains.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Kate Chistobek
c. 2024 The New York Times Company