Judge detains ‘the most violent’ alleged sex trafficker indicted with ex-cop Golubski

A federal judge in Ohio on Wednesday ordered one of the men who allegedly ran a sex trafficking operation in the 1990s with the protection of a former Kansas City, Kansas, police detective, detained ahead of trial.

In her ruling, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jennifer Dowdell Armstrong said there were “no conditions” that would reasonably assure the safety of the community if LeMark Roberson, 60, were released.

Roberson, who was living in the Cleveland area when he was arrested by FBI agents, was among three men indicted along with former KCK detective Roger Golubski in an alleged conspiracy to run a sex trafficking operation from early 1996 to late 1998 out of apartments in KCK. The apartments, at Delavan Avenue and 26th Street, were owned by one of their co-defendants, drug trafficker Cecil Brooks.

The men allegedly used physical violence, threats and coercion to hold girls ranging in age from 13 to 17 at the apartments. They supplied the addicted girls with drugs and forced them to provide sexual services to them and other men, prosecutors said.

Armstrong noted that prosecutors allege Roberson was the “muscle” and “enforcer” in the conspiracy and that “he brutally victimized” vulnerable girls. Of the men charged, Roberson was allegedly “the most violent,” Armstrong wrote in her order.

The indictment accuses Roberson of raping a teenage girl at the apartments and threatening to kill her. Once she escaped, prosecutors said, she learned he impregnated her. She suffered from an ectopic pregnancy, which can be life-threatening if untreated.

Roberson is charged with two counts of “involuntary servitude” and one count of conspiracy against rights. Like the other men indicted, he faces life in prison if convicted.

Armstrong made the initial determination on Roberson’s detention. A judge in Kansas will have the final say.

At a hearing last week, Roberson’s public defender in Ohio, Carolyn Kucharski, acknowledged the allegations were “horrible” but said they were from more than 20 years ago. She said Roberson, an Army veteran employed as a courier by the Veterans Administration Hospital in Cleveland, likely came to Ohio for a “fresh start” after he was released in 2016 from federal prison, where he had been serving time for a drug case that involved Brooks in Topeka.

Roberson’s lawyer also noted that Golubski, who worked for KCKPD from 1975 to 2010 as a homicide detective and then as a captain, had been released to house arrest in Kansas.

Federal prosecutors in Topeka had argued that Golubski, 69, needed to be detained after he was indicted on separate charges in September that allege he sexually assaulted and kidnapped a woman and a teenage girl from 1998 to 2002. They called him too dangerous to release and said he was known to keep tabs on his alleged rape victims.

Magistrate Judge Rachel Schwartz, however, released him to his Edwardsville home under electronic monitoring, noting he has serious health problems that require regular attention. Golubski was released again after the latest indictment alleging sex trafficking.

A third defendant, Richard “Bone” Robinson, 58, was released last week after Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Hunting said prosecutors were not seeking to detain him further.

The fourth defendant, Brooks, 60, remains incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. He has been behind bars since he pleaded guilty in 2009 to conspiring to distribute crack in Topeka.