Wrongfully Convicted Kansas Man Sues County for $93 Million After 23 Years in Prison

Lamonte McIntyre, who was wrongfully convicted of a double murder and spent 23 years behind bars, is suing a Kansas county for $93 million in damages. 

The 45-year-old filed a suit back in 2018 alongside his mother against the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, over the actions of detective Roger Golubski and those who prosecuted him, per the Associated Press. A Nov. 7 trial date has been set for the civil case, with the county pushing to move the trial to Wichita as there’s been an abundance of publicity in Kansas City.

McIntyre and his mother—who herself is seeking $30 million—are accusing Golubski of coercing her into having sex and then framing her son after she rejected him later on. He’s also alleged to have abused several Black women, which they say the department was aware of, with 73 women initialing pretrial orders. Golubski, who was an officer from 1975 through 2010, denied the allegations. 

The state of Kansas awarded McIntyre $1.5 million and a certificate of innocence in 2020, three years after he left prison, and his lawsuit indicates he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. His mother has suffered PTSD as well, the suit claims.

McIntyre was 17 when he was arrested for the murders, after investigators issued no search warrants and took him in after 19 minutes of interviewing. A gun was also never recovered in the murders, and testimony shows a lack of thorough forensic investigation, the AP reported in 2017. 

“Whatever I’m going to do I’m going to enjoy it,” McIntyre said after leaving jail in 2017. “Inside I’m bubbling over, I’m feeling a lot. It’s been a long time coming.

The suit comes just a month after Jay-Z’s Team Roc penned a letter to the Justice Department and urged for an investigation into the Kansas City police, calling for a “pattern or practice” investigation into systemic police misconduct.” The letter cited “significant evidence of depraved acts” by the police department, which it says targeted “minority communities.”