{"id":1354,"date":"2022-11-14T12:15:39","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T18:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/11\/14\/us\/kansas-police-indicted-sex-trafficking.html"},"modified":"2022-12-28T12:19:16","modified_gmt":"2022-12-28T18:19:16","slug":"ex-detective-in-kansas-helped-men-run-sex-trafficking-operation-u-s-says-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/more2.org\/ex-detective-in-kansas-helped-men-run-sex-trafficking-operation-u-s-says-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Detective in Kansas Helped Men Run Sex Trafficking Operation, U.S. Says &#8211; The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"story\">\n<header class=\"css-8z235g euiyums1\">\n<p><h1 id=\"link-1acd7e5\" class=\"css-1l8buln e1h9rw200\" data-testid=\"headline\">Ex-Detective in Kansas Helped Men Run Sex Trafficking Operation, U.S. Says<\/h1>\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"article-summary\" class=\"css-1n0orw4 e1wiw3jv0\">Women and girls, who were as young as 13, experienced violence, abuse, rape and death threats from 1996 to 1998, according to a federal indictment.<\/p>\n<div class=\"css-79elbk\" data-testid=\"photoviewer-wrapper\">\n<div data-testid=\"photoviewer-children\" class=\"css-1a48zt4 e11si9ry5\">\n<figure class=\"sizeMedium layoutHorizontal css-1dyerrh\" aria-label=\"media\" role=\"group\">\n<div class=\"css-bsn42l\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Roger Golubski, a former police detective, at a hearing in Wyandotte County Court in Kansas last month.\" class=\"css-rq4mmj\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2022\/11\/14\/us\/14xp-kansas\/14xp-kansas-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&#038;auto=webp&#038;disable=upscale\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/div><figcaption class=\"css-y5g5d7 e1maroi60\"><span aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"css-jevhma e13ogyst0\">Roger Golubski, a former police detective, at a hearing in Wyandotte County Court in Kansas last month.<\/span><span class=\"css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90\"><span class=\"css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0\">Credit&#8230;<\/span><span><span aria-hidden=\"false\">Carlos Moreno\/Kcur 89.3<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"meteredContent css-1r7ky0e\">\n<div class=\"css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A former police detective in Kansas who was charged in September with sexually assaulting two women while on duty more than two decades ago now faces new federal charges that he helped three other men run a violent sex trafficking operation that preyed on underage girls in the 1990s, the Justice Department said on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The former detective, Roger Golubski, 69, and the other men were each charged with one count of conspiring to hold young women in a condition of involuntary servitude and one count of forcing a woman to provide sexual services to adult men, including themselves, according to the U.S. attorney\u2019s office in Kansas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The three other men \u2014 Cecil Brooks, LeMark Roberson and Richard Robinson, who the authorities said had been emboldened and shielded for years by Mr. Golubski \u2014 were also charged with holding a woman in involuntary servitude and forcing her to provide sexual services to Mr. Roberson, according to the indictment, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">If convicted of all crimes, the men could each face a maximum sentence of life in prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Golubski\u2019s lawyer, Christopher Joseph, said in a statement that \u201cRoger maintains his innocence and looks forward to clearing his name from these decades-old and uncorroborated allegations.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Brooks and Mr. Roberson are in custody out of state and have not yet appeared in court, Mr. Joseph said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Robinson\u2019s lawyer, Justin Johnston, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The indictment came less than three months after Mr. Golubski had been charged with six federal counts in connection with sexual assaults on two women more than two decades ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Lucas Behrens, a community organizer with MORE2, a local civil rights organization, said by phone on Monday night that the new charges announced on Monday gave credence to the activists and residents who had long accused the Kansas City Police Department of malfeasance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Golubski, who is white, was particularly notorious, activists said, with Black women accusing him of terrorizing their community. He retired from the Police Department as a captain in 2010.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The indictment against the four men, which was unsealed on Monday, charges that they ran a sex-trafficking operation from 1996 to 1998 at the Delevan apartment complex in Kansas City, Kan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">According to the indictment, Mr. Golubski would accept money from Mr. Brooks, who ran the apartment complex, to the protect the three men from law enforcement agencies as they \u201cused physical beatings, sexual assaults and threats to compel young women to provide sexual services to men.\u201d Prosecutors said the defendants would also kidnap victims.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The indictment states that Mr. Brooks had \u201cpaid off law enforcement so that officers would provide warnings when police were about to \u2018hit\u2019 the house.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Kansas City Police Department did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment on Monday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Brooks used one unit at the apartment complex as an office where he stored guns, drugs and cash and held meetings, according to prosecutors. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Brooks would target women and girls as young as 13 who had just been released from the Beloit Juvenile Correctional Facility or who had run away from broken homes and would force them into sex trafficking, the indictment states. Mr. Golubski, the police officer, \u201cprimarily chose young Black girls, ranging in age from 13 to 17 years old, to submit to sex and to provide sexual services to him,\u201d the indictment states.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Delevan complex was split into the \u201coffice unit,\u201d where Mr. Brooks could lock girls in from the outside; the \u201crelaxed\u201d area, where girls would use alcohol and drugs; and a \u201cworking house,\u201d where they were compelled to perform sexual services for adult men, the indictment states.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">One of the girls, a teenager who had just been released from the Beloit Juvenile Correctional Facility and whose mother had died by suicide, was moved into the office unit at Delavan and was held inside from September 1996 to October 1997, the indictment states.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That teenager, who escaped from the apartment complex in October 1997, went to a hospital after experiencing severe abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding because she was suffering from an <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/article\/ectopic-pregnancy-symptoms-treatment.html\" title=\"\">ectopic pregnancy<\/a>, which occurs when a fertilized egg implants in the wrong place in a woman\u2019s body, according to charging documents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Roberson, who had refused to allow her to leave to go a hospital, had impregnated her, the indictment states. On a separate occasion, he struck her with an iron and dragged her down a staircase by her hair while Mr. Brooks watched and laughed, according to the indictment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Another teenager moved into Delevan at 16 after she had been released from the correctional facility. She initially lived in the \u201crelaxed\u201d area but was moved into the \u201cworking house.\u201d She was forced to provide sexual services to men for four months to avoid being beaten, the indictment states. She ran away after she had received death threats and was repeatedly raped, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Behrens, the community organizer with MORE2, said the actions described in the indictment were indicative of a corrupt Police Department.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis,\u201d he said, \u201cis the tip of the iceberg.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ophelia Williams, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/09\/15\/us\/kansas-police-officer-sexual-assault.html\" title=\"\">one of the women whom the Justice Department contended in September Mr. Golubski had raped<\/a>, said by phone on Monday night that though she was still distraught by the damage done to her by the Police Department, she felt \u201creally excited that everybody will get some justice for what they did to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She said of the four men, \u201cI hope they get behind bars.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/11\/14\/us\/kansas-police-indicted-sex-trafficking.html\" target=\"_blank\" pf-nom-item-id=\"1353\" rel=\"noopener\">Ex-Detective in Kansas Helped Men Run Sex Trafficking Operation, U.S. Says &#8211; The New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ex-Detective in Kansas Helped Men Run Sex Trafficking Operation, U.S. Says Women and girls, who were as young as 13, experienced violence, abuse, rape and &#8230;<\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/more2.org\/ex-detective-in-kansas-helped-men-run-sex-trafficking-operation-u-s-says-the-new-york-times\/\">...<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[121,127,120,126,129,125,123,122,128,119,59,124],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/more2.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/more2.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/more2.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/more2.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/more2.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/more2.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/more2.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/more2.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/more2.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}