Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Whether leaderboard ad sticky behavior is disabled

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show expanded byline information on articles

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Show the Balance of Power component on the new Election subnav component

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Enable new Elections subnav on Site pages

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

If true, will use a spoofed user agent to scrape and summarize content from paywalled sources

flip back to old full page reload when new updates come in

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Trump Campaign

Christopher Smith

A White former police detective in Kansas City, Kansas, accused of assaulting Black women and preying on impoverished residents, was found dead in his home Monday after he didn’t show up for the first day of his federal civil rights trial, authorities said.

Roger Golubski, 71, had been charged with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/15/golubski-kansas-police-arrest/" target=_blank>six counts of deprivation of rights</a>, with prosecutors alleging he used his power as a law enforcement official to abuse two women multiple times between 1999 and 2002, allegedly raping and sodomizing them in their homes and in his vehicle, according to the Justice Department’s indictment.

Golubski faced a life sentence in prison if he had been convicted. He also had been indicted in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/11/14/doj-kansas-city-cop/" target=_blank>a second federal case</a> on charges that he conspired with a local drug dealer to force underage girls into “involuntary sexual servitude” in the mid-1990s. He denied any wrongdoing.

Golubski was found in his home in Edwardsville, where he had been confined to house arrest for more than two years since being criminally charged. Local authorities said Golubski died of a gunshot wound and that there were no signs of foul play.

The cases highlighted efforts by local civil rights advocates to bring greater police accountability years after what they described as a reign of terror in which Golubski and other officers abused the city’s disenfranchised Black community. Activists had pressed the Justice Department to open a broader civil rights investigation into what they called <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/11/25/kansas-city-cop-golubski/" target=_blank>a corrupt policing culture and lack of accountability among top police and city leaders</a> that allowed such abuses to go unpunished.

The city’s mayor and police chief — both of whom are Black and took office well after Golubski had retired — opposed the push for a broader federal civil rights probe into the police department, saying they already were pursuing wide-ranging police accountability measures.

Residents said they were frustrated at the news of Golubski’s death, saying they had hoped a conviction in the case would help bring a sense of justice for the victims.

“A lot of work went into just getting us to this point, and a lot of what justice looks like was people being able to have their day in court,” said Nikki Richardson, co-founder of Justice for Wyandotte, a social justice advocacy group named for the county that includes Kansas City. “That was stolen from not only the victims but the survivors and the entire community. I don’t know what justice looks like in this case going forward.”

Golubski’s trial was set to take place at a federal courthouse in Topeka, about an hour’s drive from Kansas City, due to concerns involving the notoriety of his case, which had drawn extensive media coverage. Team ROC, a social justice group founded by music mogul Jay-Z, had taken an interest in the case, suing the city and police department over open records requests and planning to air a podcast about Golubski’s trial this week.

Khadijah Hardaway, a civil rights activist who was in the courtroom Monday, said court officials notified about 45 members of the public that the start of the trial would be delayed. More people who arrived were turned away, she said, as news broke that Golubski had been found dead.

In a statement, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who oversees the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said: “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. The proceedings in this case may be over, but its lasting impact on all the individuals and families involved remains.”

Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting, 2005 

Honorable mention, Merriman Smith Memorial Award for excellence in presidential news coverage under deadline, 2016

University of Missouri, bachelor of journalism

David Nakamura covers the Justice Department with a focus on civil rights. He has previously covered the White House,  sports, education, city government and foreign affairs. 

David Nakamura

washpost

Former Kansas detective accused of assaulting Black women found dead

the-washington-post

Golubski

For The Washington Post

The Washington Post

Foreign Policy

Intelligence

Justice

Military

National Security

prism://prism.query/site,/national-security/justice&limit=20

prism://prism.query/site,/national-security&limit=20

Sign up for Fact Checker, our weekly review of what's true, false or in-between in politics.

The Washington Post's coverage of national security issues, including the military, intelligence, justice, and foreign policy.