Prosecutor calls for probe of detective in wrongful conviction
UNITED STATES: A Kansas prosecutor has asked for help in investigating a retired white police detective accused of preying on black women for sex over decades and pursuing the wrongful murder conviction of the son of one of the women.
Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree, the first black elected district attorney in Kansas, recently noted in an interview that Kansas City Police Chief Terry Zeigler had said there should be an investigation of former detective Roger Golubski, who numerous residents say wielded his power to terrorise the Kansas City, Kansas black community for years.
‘‘When the chief of police says something like that, then I have to look at this retired detective who was with the police department for 30 years,’’ Dupree said.
The prosecutor, elected last year, recently requested assistance from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to look into Golubski’s conduct, and ‘‘discussions are currently occurring on how best to proceed’’, bureau spokeswoman Melissa Underwood said.
Dupree shocked those attending a court hearing on October 13 when he said there had been ‘‘manifest injustice’’ in the conviction of Lamonte McIntyre for the 1994 murders of two men, when he was a teenager. A judge let McIntyre go free after 23 years in prison.
No physical evidence linked McIntyre to the crime, and he did not know the victims. The case rested on contradictory and coerced testimony that police and the prosecutor at the time allegedly knew to be false.
McIntyre’s mother, Rose, said in an affidavit that years before her son was convicted, Golubski coerced her into a sexual act in his office and then harassed her for weeks, often calling her two or three times a day, before she moved and changed her phone number. She believes Golubski retaliated against her son because she spurned his later advances.
Affidavits also accuse the prosecutor in the case, Terra Morehead, of intimidating witnesses who told her McIntyre was not the killer, and then not informing the defence about those statements.
The presiding judge, J Dexter Burdette, had a romantic relationship with Morehead before the trial, which neither disclosed at the time.
Golubski, Morehead and Burdette have never been disciplined over those issues. All three either declined or did not respond to requests for comment.
Golubski retired from law enforcement last year. Morehead is now a federal prosecutor. Burdette is still on the bench.
–AP