Shielded by Deceit
LOGLINE “Shielded by Deceit” is a gripping multi-part True Crime doc series about the gangster-like reign of Detective Roger Golubski, a downmarket Jeffrey Epstein who raped and shook down victims, using his iron-clad control of Kansas City law enforcement to prey on the vulnerable people he was supposed to be protecting. What he didn't count on was that his victims wouldn't break.
For 35 years, Det. Golubski was hailed as a top cop clearing cases in record time as his department was praised on Cops and 48 Hours as crimestoppers. Yet, in reality, the notoriously racist Kansas City, Kansas police department and district attorney allowed Golubski to rape women, enable sex and drug trafficking, fake evidence, coerce witnesses and imprison young men for decades on false charges. Golubski was just the tip of the iceberg for the corruption that ran rampant throughout the KCKPD. The FBI had been investigating the police department since the 1990s and their mistreatment of Black people during the country's crack epidemic. However, it was the work of one local journalist that was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Melinda Henneberger was the Kansas City Star columnist who began to investigate the rape allegations against Golubski. Henneberger looked into the allegations that Golubski was not just making up evidence, but was engaged in criminal acts himself. Her work ignited a fire in the community. The work that Henneberger did in uncovering the corruption that ran rampant in the KCKPD won her a Pulitzer Award in 2022.
A man who wanted to be a priest but decided to work in law enforcement instead, Det. Golubski rose quickly within the KCKPD. He achieved this with the help of his “informants” and “witnesses,” most of whom were Black women he threatened, raped, and fed drugs.
He operated in tandem with criminals, out in the open as fellow officers hid his drug dealing and abuse of power and people. Jailing innocents and terrorizing their families, he believed his victims were poor, Black, and powerless people who would never fight back.
STYLISTIC APPROACH Through exclusive in-depth interviews and testimonies from survivors, police whistle blowers, chilling archival footage, and the ongoing reporting of a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who blew the case open - this fourpart docuseries unfolds as a truecrime horror story that only emerges from the darkness as his victims reclaim their lives.
EPISODE ONE THE BADGE AND THE STREETS
Michelle Houcks ran to a nearby park following an argument with her boyfriend. She was relieved when Det. Roger Golubski pulled up and offered her a ride back home. He turned out to be the most dangerous person she’d encountered in her life. Golubski would eventually be accused of raping dozens of women, terrorizing them into repeated encounters by setting up their relatives with false accusations that sometimes led to jail. But in Kansas City, Golubski and the KCKPD were heroes featured on Cops and 48 hours for closing a record number of cases despite a history of racist, violent behavior. Golbuski is seemingly this regular guy who spends afternoons playing cards with his wife Ethel, her childhood best friend Kathy Warren and her husband Cedric Toney. who describes Golubski as a churchgoer and wanna be priest, policing a city known more for BBQ and Nascar than bad cops. But the facade is about to crumble. Cheryl Pilate, a fiery lawyer, is making a case to free Lamonte McIntyre, in jail for 23 years on murder charges. Pilate alleges that Golubski was pressuring Lamonte's mother Rosemary into having sex with him. When she wouldn’t buckle, Golubski sets up Lamonte on murder charges - and rapes his mother right in police headquarters. Lamonte is exonerated, it could prove Golubski fakes evidence. Hundreds of convictions might be overturned and the entire KCK PD might be implicated in Golubski’s corruption.
"There were a lot of dirtballs; it wasn't just Golubski." - Al Jennerich, former FBI agent in relation to pursuing allegations againts Golubski and the KCKPD
EPISODE TWO HIDDEN VICTIMS
Lamonte is released after 23 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. He files a civil suit against Golubski who pled the 5th 555 times in video depositions when asked about several other rapes. By then Golubski’s wife Ethel had divorced him. He was stalking her childhood best friend, Kathy, for sex. Kathy’s husband Cedric Toney tells how Golubski intimidates her by threatening to set up their son Cedric Jr. When Kathy rejects him, Golubski implicates their son in a double homicide using fake evidence and he is convicted - just like he set up Lamonte. Two years after the Lamonte case exploded nothing has happened to Golubski or the hundreds of cases now called into question. Kansas City Star reporter Melinda Henneberger starts to investigate why. She begins finding more and more women telling her how they too were victimized by Golubski in the same sick pattern. Ophelia Williams and Jermeka Hobbs decide to come forward. Ophelia's sons were barely teenagers when Golubski sent them to jail to coerce her into having sex. They are now grown men still in prison. Blaring headlines from Melinda’s articles - who eventually wins the Pulitzer Prize for her work - put enormous pressure on the feds to investigate Golubski. Federal investigators finally take up the case to find out what other crimes was he committing - and who else in the police department was in on it.
“Who am I going to tell?” she kept asking herself. “The police? He IS the police.” - Ophelia Williams during one of her encounters with Det. Golubski
EPISODE THREE CRACKS IN THE SHEILD
The federal government begins building two cases against Golubski. One accusing him of sexually assaulting and intimidating women. The other case could implicate all of Kansas City Kansas law enforcement - they alleged Golubski and was working with the KCKPD to protect a vast drug dealing and sex trafficking operation run by notorious drug kingpin Cecil Brooks.
One victim of that is Curtis Coleman who was set up by Golubski because he knew too much about his drug dealing operations. Coleman, at 15, was convicted of the drive-by shooting of a 10-year-old. Golubski's only evidence against Coleman was the testimony of a woman he threatened with arrest if she wouldn’t lie. DA Tare Morehead, who often works with Golubski, tells the judge the only witness who could have cleared him has vanished, even as she sits outside the courtroom. Curtis goes to prison.
Golubski is indicted for sexually assaulting women multiple times. Many are women from Melinda’s reporting who hope justice is coming. A few months later the Feds handed down a 2nd indictment charging him along with KCK kingpin Cecil Brooks in a sex-trafficking operation where they assaulted girls who were ensnared in it. The evidence could implicate everyone from the DA to the KCKPD.
Prosecutors argued that Golubski should be detained while awaiting trial. He is allowed to stay at home because of health problems, as the KDKPD goes into a panic over what his trial might reveal about their own crimes.
The first day of the trial -- a shocker - Golubski doesn't show. The KCKPD announces that Golubski has shot himself in the head on his back deck. His victims are heartbroken, fearing there will never be accountability for his assaults and that scores of young men may remain wrongfully in prison. Ophelia's sons have grown up in jail. So has Cedric and Kathy’s son, Cedric jr. and Curtis Coleman who went in at 15. But there is still hope in the trial of Golubski’s co-conspirator Cecil Brooks. If prosecutors can make a case against Cecil, the entire police department could be ensnared. With Golubski dead, his victims are emboldened to speak out without fear. They have an entire police department to go after - and plenty of cards yet to play.
EPISODE FOUR THE FIGHT FOR JUSTICE
KCK PD begins acting like his suicide makes this a closed case, and some even claim his innocence. But the KCK law enforcement isn't in the clear yet. A judge throws out the double homicide case against Cedric Jr. At 15, he had been arrested in connection with a double murder only an hour after police finished taking the formal statement of the surviving victim — a severely mentally ill homeless man. The judge said the DA may retry him even though the chief investigator, Roger Golubski, is now dead. DA Terra Morehead is no longer DA because she was disbarred on a string of unrelated ethical lapses. After 27 years, Cedric Jr is freed - and is currently fighting now for a full exoneration.
Their eyes are now on the trial of Cecil Brooks and what justice it may bring.
Police officers are beginning to talk to Melinda as well, including Max Siefart who saw Golubski evolve into a criminal and another officer who delivers a death-bed confession of his complicity with Golubski. It’s becoming clear the KCK PD and the former DA had a stake in protecting Golubski’s ties to a criminal enterprise. Lamonte McIntyre who won a large civil suit and he’s using the money to help other men prove their innocence, including Curtis Coleman. So is his lawyer, Cheryl Pilate. Melinda Henneberger begins breaking story after story, promising the victims she will hold KCK accountable for not reopening all these cases that are now in doubt, including Curtis Coleman's. Melinda also continues to zoom with Ophelia's sons who are still wasting away in Kansas prisons.
There is huge hope that the upcoming trial of local gangster Cecil Brooks might give all these victims some justice. That trial will present evidence that Golubski and disbarred prosecutor Terra Morehead were manufacturing a case against Cecil to protect Golubski.
Golubski was running a sex trafficking ring with Cecil Brooks with the complicity of the KCK PD. Golubski successfully waved away police when the women called for help. Now that all the key players are talking many exclusively for this documentary - KCK may finally have a reckoning and the victims may get some justice - in the public knowing the truth.
The victims of this man and the system will never stop trying to get the justice they’ve been denied, and telling their stories is a big part of that effort. Shielded by Deceit will not let this story die.
For the first time ever, victims of Golubski's reign speak about their experiences fighting the dangers of a force meant to help protect them...
Rosie McIntyre and her son, Lamonte Years before Houcks encountered Golubski, Rosie McIntyre was raped by the police officer. Using his authority, Golubski threatened the life of Rosie's son, Lamonte, if she were to report him. Lamonte was later arrested and sent to jail for 23 years. However, in 2017, with the help of his lawyer, Cheryl Pilate, Centurion Ministries, and the Innocence Project, Lamonte's innocence was proven and that Golubski and the prosecutor of the case had set him up. After his release, Lamonte and his family filed a lawsuit stating that Unified Government of Kansas City, Kansas and Wyandotte County were responsible for violating his civil rights. Additionally, they wanted to expose Golubski's abuse of power and his extortion of Black women for sexual favors.
Michelle Houcks Michelle Houcks met Det. Golubski when she was a teenager after she got into a fight with her boyfriend. Thinking he was a nice police officer offering to give her a ride home, she got into his car. He turned out to be the most dangerous person she’d encountered in her life. Golubski raped Houcks that night and threatened her brother's life if she ever tried to report the incident. Houcks was not Golubski's first victim.
Ophelia Williams and her twin sons, Ronell and Donell
Ophelia Williams and her family were another set of victims in Golubski's reign of terror. In the middle of the night, Golubski and a swarm of cops burst into her house to take her twin 14-year-old boys, Ronell and Donell, in for questioning about a double murder of an elderly couple. Golubski made comments towards Williams and shortly returned back to her home and sexually assaulted her. Every time this happened, Golubski promised that she would free her boys.
After more than 20 years, Ronell and Donell are still in prison.
Niko Quinn Niko Quinn was one of the first women to approach Melinda Henneberger, a Kansas City Star reporter following the story. Quinn revealed how Golubski and Morehead, the DA, coerced her into testifying falsely against Lamonte by threatening that she would be jailed and have her children taken away if she didn’t.
THE TEAM
DIRECTOR
Yoruba Richen is the founder of Promised Land Film which is devoted to producing and directing nuanced, compelling documentary films that illuminate issues of race, space and power. She directed The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks for SO’B which was released on Peacock and won a Peabody, a Gracie and was honored by the Television Academy. Yoruba was awarded the Trailblazer award by Black Public Media and her work has been featured on multiple outlets, including Netflix, HBO, MSNBC, Peacock, FX/Hulu and PBS. Yoruba’s other films include the Emmy-nominated films American Reckoning, How It Feels to Be Free, The Sit In: Harry Belafonte Hosts the Tonight Show and Green Book: Guide to Freedom. Her film American Coup: Wilmington 1898 was nominated for a Peabody and The Killing of Breonna Taylor won an NAACP Image Award. Yoruba directed an episode of the award-winning series Black and Missing for HBO and High on the Hog for Netflix. She codirected The Fall of Diddy for HBO Max/ID and her latest film, FREE JOAN LITTLE will premiere on PBS in 2027. Yoruba is the Founding Director of the Documentary Program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Melinda Henneberger was a columnist and editorial writer at The Kansas City Star when she won the Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of the Golubski case. She joined The Star Editorial Board in 2017 and was named vice president and editorial page editor for the paper in 2021. She has covered criminal justice, local and state government, hospitals, social services, prisons and national politics and previously worked in Texas, New York and Washington, D.C. For 10 years, she was a reporter for The New York Times based in New York, Washington and Rome. An Illinois native and graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Henneberger earned a graduate degree in European Studies from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. She also has been a visiting fellow at the Catholic University of America's Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies and a fellow at Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. 2022 Pulitzer Prize for commentary and was a Pulitzer finalist for commentary in 2021, for editorial writing in 2020 and for commentary in 2019. She received the Mike Royko Award for Commentary and Column Writing from the News Leaders Association in 2019 and the Scripps Howard Walker Stone Award for Opinion Writing in 2018.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Alisa Payne is a film and Television professional whose career spans over 25 years and boasts a diverse array of credits. Her work is marked by excellence, resilience, and an unwavering commitment to pushing her craft - and the industry - forward. Her most recent projects include the Academy Award nominated film The Perfect Neighbor and the Emmy-nominated limited series Katrina: Come Hell and High Water, which premiered at #1 on Netflix, earned 3 Emmy nominations, and won the Gotham Award for Breakthrough Nonfiction Series. She also produced the Emmy Award–nominated and Academy Award– shortlisted documentary Stamped from the Beginning, based on Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s eponymous book, as well as the critically acclaimed HBO film Between the World and Me.
Payne served as showrunner and co-executive producer of Harlem Ice, the Emmy nominated five-part docuseries (Disney+/Imagine). She is producer of the forthcoming short film Women Count (Sundance/Times Studios), and executive producer of Freshman. Again. and The Black Table. Her work has earned numerous honors, including but not limited to, three Critics Choice Documentary Awards, a Grierson Award, an Independent Spirt Award, an NAACP Image Award, two Gracie Awards, and many film critics’ awards. Her work has also received multiple nominations, including six Emmy nominations, a PGA Award nomination, a Critics Choice Awards nomination, three Cinema Eye Honor nominations, a Gotham Award nomination and more. In 2022 Payne co-founded Message Pictures alongside filmmakers Sam Pollard and Geeta Gandbhir, a production company with a mission to create opportunities for underrepresented creatives to tell stories that matter to them.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Sam Pollard is a renowned film and television editor, documentary producer, and director. Between 1990 and 2010, he collaborated with Spike Lee on various projects, including editing several films such as Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever, and Bamboozled. Their documentary work together includes Four Little Girls and When The Levees Broke, which earned critical acclaim and awards. He recently released Katrina: Come Hell and High Water, which premiered at #1 on Netflix, earned 3 Emmy nominations, and won the Gotham Award for Breakthrough Nonfiction Series. Since 2012, Pollard has focused on producing and directing. He created documentaries like Slavery By Another Name for PBS, August Wilson: The Ground On Which I Stand for American Masters, and Two Trains Runnin’, which premiered at the Full Frame Film Festival. He's also worked on projects like Sammy Davis Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me and the series Why We Hate for The Discovery Channel. In 2020, Pollard received the International Documentary Association’s first Career Achievement Award. The following year, Film at Lincoln Center honored him as one of "cinema’s most dedicated chroniclers of the Black experience in America." He also contributed as a director to the HBO series Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children and completed MLK/FBI. Pollard served as an executive producer on The Perfect Neighbor which premiered at Sundance in 2025. Recently, he formed Message Pictures with collaborators Geeta Gandbhir and Alisa Payne, focusing on sharing stories that amplify unheard voices and shed light on important issues.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Soledad O’Brien is a journalist, documentarian, philanthropist and popular speaker with over two million followers on social media. She was a founding anchor at MSNBC, anchored at NBC’s “Weekend Today,” anchored CNN’s morning show for more than a decade, and was a correspondent for HBO RealSports. She has also reported news, documentaries and podcasts for the PBS NewsHour, NatGeo, Hearst, Scripps, A&E, Audible, and IHeart. Most recently she reported "She Was First", a 6 part documentary series for PBS, the Scripps documentary "War on La Radio" and "Who Killed JFK," with Rob Reiner which debuted number #1 on Apple Podcasts. Founder of SO'B Productions, their latest work includes the Oscar nominated documentaries, "The Devil Is Busy,” on HBO and Netflix "The Perfect Neighbor," Peabody winner "The Rebellious Life of Rosa Parks for Peacock", Independent Spirit Award winner "Black and Missing" for HBO, and many other films. She has won ten Emmys, three George Foster Peabody Awards, the Alfred I Dupont Award, among others.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Geeta Gandbhir is an award-winning filmmaker and co-founder of Message Pictures. In 2026, she made history by becoming the first woman director nominated for two Oscars in different categories in the same year. Recent credits include The Perfect Neighbor, which received an Oscar nomination in 2026, the series “Katrina: Come Hell and High Water” for Netflix which won the Gotham Award for Breakthrough Nonfiction Series and was nominated for 3 Emmy Awards, and the short "The Devil is Busy" for HBO that was nominated for a 2026 Oscar. Her credits also include"Reclaimed" for Sesame Workshop, the Oscar-shortlisted film “How We Get Free” for HBO, the series "Born in Synanon" for Paramount, and the series "Eyes on the Prize" For HBO, and the feature documentary Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power, which was nominated for the 2022 Critics Choice Award, won a 2023 SIMA Award, and won a 2023 Emmy Award. She directed and was the showrunner for the series "Black and Missing" for HBO, which won a 2022 NAACP Award for Best Directing, a 2022 Independent Spirit Award or Best Documentary Series, a 2022 ATAS Honors Award, and a Cinema Eye Honors for Best Series. She directed the film "Apart," with Rudy Valdez for HBO Max which won a 2022 Emmy Award.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Rose Arce is Vice President of Soledad O’Brien Productions. She leads development and production with a mission of elevating untold stories in marginalized communities by creating compelling, gritty, edgy content focused on authentic characters. A Pulitzer Prize and four-time Emmy Awardwinning journalist and author, she has spearheaded award-winning and Oscar nominated documentary films, shorts, series and podcasts for SO’B’s clients, ranging from streamers like Paramount+ and Peacock to Netflix and HBO, as well as #1 podcasts on networks like IHeart, Audible and Luminary. She directed "War on La Radio" and "Pandemic in Seattle," both winners of Silver Tellys for directing, and produced nearly a dozen other documentaries, including two top Nielsen-rated CNN series. The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences honored her with a special Emmy recognition for her exclusive reporting on September 11 and the war in Afghanistan.