A disgraced Kansas cop killed himself hours before he was due to stand trial for raping black women. 

Roger Golubski, 71, was found dead Monday morning after failing to show up to watch jury selection at his trial in Topeka. A judge issued a warrant for his arrest before news of his death emerged.

Two sources told CNN the retired detective had committed suicide. Prosecutors later confirmed in court that Golubski has died but did not say how or when.

Golubski’s lawyer Chris Joseph told the court the late cop had been left distraught by press coverage of his alleged misdeeds.

The late cop was accused of preying on vulnerable black women during his decades-long career.

He is said to have hand-picked his victims believing that any allegations made against him would never be taken seriously. 

Victims did come forward to accuse Golubski of sex attacks but he claimed they were liars, or repeating old rumors that had been disproven. 

He was eventually indicted in 2022 after a lengthy secret investigation into claims he was an associate of a drug kingpin involved in sex trafficking underage girls.  

Prosecutors said female residents of poor neighborhoods in Kansas City, Kansas, feared that if they crossed paths with Golubski, he’d demand sexual favors and threaten to harm or jail their relatives.

Golubski, 71, was facing six felony counts of violating women’s civil rights. But he did not appear in court Monday morning for the start of jury selection. 

Allegations at the heart of the case – that Golubski preyed on women for decades with seeming impunity – have outraged the community and deepened the historical distrust of law enforcement. 

Golubski was accused of sexually assaulting one woman starting when she was barely a teenager and another after her sons were arrested. 

The prosecution followed earlier reports of similar abuse allegations across the country where hundreds of officers have lost their badges after allegations of sexual assaults.

Cheryl Pilate, an attorney representing women who’ve said they were abused or threatened, called for a thorough investigation of Golubski’s death by officials with no ties to local police, as reported by the Associated Press. 

‘The community was looking forward to justice, to a full and public accounting and now that has been denied to them,’ Pilate said.

About 50 people had a short rally in sub-freezing temperatures outside the federal courthouse in Topeka to show their support for the women accusing Golubski of abusing them, breaking up before the announcement of his death. They held signs with slogans such as, ‘Justice Now!’

US District Judge Toby Crouse dismissed the case against Golubski at prosecutors’ request. Golubski’s lawyer Joseph called the death ‘truly unexpected.’

The case against Golubski was part of a string of lawsuits and criminal allegations that has led the county prosecutor’s office to begin a $1.7 million effort to reexamine cases Golubski worked on during his 35 years on the force. One double murder case Golubski investigated already has resulted in an exoneration, and an organization run by rapper Jay-Z is suing to obtain police records.

Joseph had said lawsuits over the allegations were an “inspiration for fabrication” by his accusers. But prosecutors said that, along with the two women whose accounts are the heart of the criminal case, seven others were going to testify that Golubski abused or harassed them.

Prior to his death, Golubski had been under house arrest and undergoing kidney dialysis treatments three times a week. That angered women who said he victimized them. Anita Randel-Stanley, a Kansas City, Missouri, resident who said Golubski started harassing her decades ago when she was a teenager, called the house arrest “a slap on the hand.”

‘There is no justice for the victims,’ she said.