KCK police covered up crimes, abused women while UG knew and did nothing, lawsuit alleges

Police officers in Kansas City, Kansas, operated a “protection racket,” which shielded gangs and traffickers in exchange for money and access to women and girls — and the Unified Government knew, a federal lawsuit alleges.

One of those officers was Roger Golubski, who has been federally indicted in two separate cases for assaulting two victims in the 1990s and conspiring to sex traffic underage girls between 1996 and 1998 with three other men. He is scheduled to go to trial in the assault case in December.

The 75-page federal lawsuit was filed by Jermeka Hobbs in the District of Kansas.

A spokeswoman for the Unified Government and Golubski’s criminal defense attorney declined to comment, citing the pending cases.

In 2005, Hobbs’ then boyfriend threw her through a shower door, and police were called. A few days later, Golubski arrived at her house and told her “I have your case,” the lawsuit said.

At the time, Hobbs was using drugs including marijuana, crack cocaine and PCP.

Golubski made overtly sexual statements. According to the lawsuit, “his implicit threats were also obvious to Hobbs: give him what he wanted sexually, or she would go to jail for the drugs.”

Soon after, he began coercing her into sexual acts, the lawsuit said. For several years, he picked her up, and they would drive around as he demanded she touch him and he showed her Polaroids of murdered Black women from Kansas City, Kansas. He often drove to secluded areas where Black women had been reported missing or where their bodies had been discovered. She began wondering if he had killed them.

Sometimes he tossed money at her when he dropped her off and told her she could use it for drugs. Other times, he instructed her to meet him at police headquarters.

The encounters stopped around 2010, when Hobbs told Golubski that she had cousins in KCKPD.

The lawsuit said Hobbs was “targeted, sexually extorted and groomed to serve as one of ‘Golubski’s Girls.’”

The protection racket, the lawsuit said, “operated a network of women that the Unified Government and its employees crudely or jokingly (depending on one’s viewpoint) referred to as ‘Golubski’s Girls.’ Golubski insisted upon a proprietary interest in these women, which was respected by the Unified Government.”

Golubski, the lawsuit said, managed the protection racket’s operation, which covered up gang killings, fabricated evidence and raped women.

Golubski’s partner Terry Ziegler became police chief in 2015 and “protected and enabled the Protection Racket’s conduct,” the lawsuit alleged. He was one of 11 individual officers named as defendants in the lawsuit.

The Star attempted to reach Ziegler, but he did not respond.

The lawsuit said the Unified Government was aware of the misconduct, but did not take action.

One time, a detective walked in on Golubski receiving oral sex from a Black female at KCKPD headquarters, the lawsuit said.

The UG’s response, communicated by the police chief at the time, was to call a meeting where someone asked, “Don’t you guys have locks on your doors?” the lawsuit said.

“The Chiefs of Police, their command staff, and other responsible public officials, though informed and aware of these abuses and criminal acts, permitted the abuse of Black residents that has lasted for decades, destroying lives and families,” the lawsuit said.

When officers did speak up about misconduct, they were labeled “rats,” the lawsuit said, and at times, sent out on dangerous calls alone.

The lawsuit includes a dozen counts, including sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; a civil rights conspiracy; obstruction; and violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. It seeks monetary damages in addition to a finding that the defendants’ actions constituted intentional discrimination.

Last November, five women filed a lawsuit against Golubski, Wyandotte County and others, alleging they were raped or sexually harassed by the former detective.

The lawsuits are separate from Golubski’s two criminal cases where he could face prison if found guilty.