The Dictatorship
I resisted this detective’s sexual advances. Why I’ll never get to testify against him.
For more than two years, I was referred to as one of the “Other Victims” in court filings preceding a federal civil rights trial against former Kansas City, Kansas, police detective Roger Golubskiwhich was scheduled to start Dec. 2 in Topeka. Government attorneys were preparing to prove to a jury that Golubski, using his power as a cop, had sexually abused vulnerable Black women for decades. And I had planned to describe how Golubski pulled me over multiple times and said that if I didn’t comply with his sexual demands, he’d take away my children.
I had planned to describe how Golubski pulled me over multiple times and said that if I didn’t comply with his sexual demands, he’d take away my children.
I rejected his advances, and in 2008, in a case that Golubski helped oversee, one of my sons, Donnell, was arrested and later convicted of murder. Donnie, who’s 37 now, has spent more than 16 years in prison. He had many alibi witnesses on the day of the crime, but they were ignored by the police. When the police flooded my lawn and home to arrest my then-21-year-old son for a crime I, and reportedly a group of prosecutors who reviewed the case, believe he didn’t commit, I saw Golubski standing across the street, watching.
I didn’t get to testify against Golubski, and I won’t get to testify against him because he reportedly died by suicide the morning of Dec. 2 as the federal trial against him was about to start.
In September 2022, The Kansas City Star reported that a unit in the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office assembled to look for wrongful convictions believed my son was innocent and that Golubski had framed him. As the paper reported then:
A person with knowledge of the DA’s investigation told The Star that witnesses said then-captain Roger Golubski, who has long been accused of terrorizing and raping Black women in KCK, had pursued one of Dobbs’ female relatives for sex before the shooting and Dobbs’ arrest. The unit came to believe Golubski ‘manipulated’ evidence and targeted Dobbs because he was a relative of the woman.
The Kansas city star
I, Donnie’s mother, am the woman Golubski pursued for sex. It has been extremely difficult as a mother and as a human being to know that my son wakes up every day, an innocent man, behind bars at Lansing Correctional Facility. According to the Star, multiple sources said the conviction integrity unit reported its findings to the district attorney. But all the district attorney’s office has said is that it doesn’t discuss its integrity unit cases, telling the newspaper that “unless it is in court and on the record, no finding of innocence is made or has been made from this office.”
“So you don’t want to save your kids?” Golubski asked me once as he demanded sex. “It is your choice.”
Learning that Golubski was dead left me with mixed emotions. For years, I didn’t feel heard. Golubski’s repeated threats to my family left me in shock and with crippling fear for our safety.
Golubski’s many accusers were shamed, embarrassed and made to feel unworthy.
Golubski’s many accusers were shamed, embarrassed and made to feel unworthy. But his federal trial presented an opportunity for me and eight other women with stories of being victimized by Golubski to have a chance to testify. Finally, we’d be able to tell the public what we had endured. Finally, the people would get to listen to us, as the FBI and federal prosecutors listened to us before asking us to testify against Golubski. But we’ve once again been deprived of that opportunity because the person we wanted to confront in court appears to have killed himself.
My community had been accusing Golubski of terrorizing us for years. A September 2022 federal indictment charging Golubski with sexually assaulting two victims between 1998 and 2002 and a November 2022 federal indictment accusing him and three others of “conspiring, decades ago, to hold young women in a condition of involuntary sexual servitude” echoed our complaint: that a white detective — who was paid by our tax dollars to protect and serve us — was raping and assaulting vulnerable Black women.
But despite our years of accusations, nothing had been done to protect us. Golubski retired in 2010 after 35 years with the police force.
In 2017, Lamonte McIntyre was released from prison after serving 23 years for a double murder that he didn’t commit. He and his mother, Rose McIntyre, argued that he was framed because she, like I did, refused to have sex with Roger Golubski. In a deposition for McIntyre’s lawsuit, Golubski invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent 555 times. In June 2022, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, agreed to settle with Lamonte McIntyre for $12.5 million after he filed a mistaken conviction lawsuit. The state of Kansas, which McIntyre also sued for mistaken conviction, paid him another $1.5. million.
So I’m not the only mother who has said that my child was framed by Golubski for not having sex with him. I don’t believe our stories are unique. There are most likely many others with similar experiences. The Kansas City Star report about the members of the conviction review unit who believed my Donnie is innocent ended with: “Dobbs remains imprisoned at the Lansing Correctional Facility, where at least three other men who claim they are innocent in cases touched by Golubski are incarcerated.”
Even though Golubski can no longer hurt us, the system that empowered him continues to do so. Golubski was scheduled to stand trial because, according to the federal indictments against him, he terrorized our community for decades. Yet there has been no transparent and systemic review of the damage caused by Golubski and the KCKPD. Not from the district attorney’s office and not from the U.S. Justice Department, despite years of calls for a pattern-and-practice investigation into the KCKPD.
Golubski may be dead, but the fight for justice isn’t over. I don’t want people to give up. I continue to ask for justice for all his victims and all of Wyandotte County.
And justice for my Donnie, who I was prepared to testify is in prison today because I told Golubski no.
Davilyn Dobbs
Davilyn Dobbs is the mother of Donnell Dobbs, who is serving a prison sentence for first-degree murder in Kansas.
President Donald Trump is giving fragile U.S.-Iran diplomacy “some space” before deciding whether to resume strikes, United Nations Ambassador Mike Waltz said Sunday.
Hours later, however, Trump posted images to social media depicting the U.S. attacking Iran.
Waltz also dismissed concerns over the United States’ diminished munitions stockpiles, even as he conceded that “a lot” of weapons have been depleted, which he said was because of the Russia-Ukraine war and fighting with the Houthis.
“I want to be crystal clear: The U.S. military — and I’ve verified this every which way — has everything that it needs to conduct this campaign as effectively as it needs to be,” Waltz told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Waltz’s comments came on the second consecutive day of paused fighting between the United Sates and Iran amid reports of a dwindled U.S. stockpile of Patriot antimissile interceptors, among other munitions.
The New York Times reported Sunday that the depletion of interceptor stockpiles is among the reasons why the administration is wary of resuming major combat operations in a war launched without congressional authorization and which has grown exceedingly unpopular.
But Waltz underscored that the pause in fighting is to allow for an opportunity for peace — not because of an insufficient weapons supply, and warned that those leaking information to the press about the U.S. not having sufficient weaponry “deserve to be in jail.”
“What the president is doing right now, as we’ve seen all along, is giving some talks some space. Talks are ongoing,” Waltz told NBC. “They’re happening at every level, from the more technical aspect of it all the way to the highest levels, of course, within both the Iranian government and the U.S. government.”
He reiterated in an appearance on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that Trump “is giving diplomacy a chance.”
But even after Waltz publicly touted giving peace a chance, Trump posted several AI-generated images on Truth Social Sunday afternoon depicting the U.S. striking Kharg Island. In one imageTrump is standing on the deck of an Iranian oil tanker with an American flag in hand.
Trump met with top aides on Friday to weigh escalating military action against Iran, according to a senior White House official. On Saturday, the president told a French journalist that he is “absolutely” considering resuming full-scale war with Iran if the U.S. doesn’t “get 100% of what we want.”
Waltz declined to give a timeline for when the war would end.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that if Iran plays any role in attacking Israel, it would be making a “terrible mistake” and that the response would be “very forceful.”
“If Iran attacks Israel – either directly or through proxies, either with ballistic missiles or UAV [Unmanned Aerial Vehicles]’s or killer drones — it will make a terrible mistake,” he said on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”“Because our response, Israel’s response, will be very, very forceful.”
Netanyahu, who launched the war with Iran jointly with Trump on Feb. 28, is set to meet with his U.S. counterpart at the White House on Tuesday, the same day he’s scheduled to attend the funeral of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Jake Traylor and Emily Hung contributed to this report.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
BERLIN (AP) — The suspect in the deadly Berlin Pride attackthat left one person dead and 29 injured was shot and killed by police during a confrontation on Sunday in a suburb of the city, authorities said.
Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, was killed following a search that lasted nearly 24 hours after the attack in downtown Berlin. Prosecutors said he had previously sought to join the militant Islamic State group.
Ballout was suspected of driving a van into a crowd near Berlin’s Pride festival Saturday night before apparently stabbing others with a machete in what authorities believe was an Islamic extremist terror attack.
“Everything we see here points to us dealing with an Islamic terror attack,” Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said.
Dobrindt put the total number of wounded at 29. The attack occurred a few hundred meters (yards) from a party near the Brandenburg Gate that was supposed to close out the city’s Pride festival.
Ballout was born in Germany, the minister said. His mother was naturalized in 2002, three years before he was born.
Ashley Jump, a 26-year-old U.K. resident, had traveled to Berlin for Saturday’s Pride parade but had left the celebrations before the attack. They returned Sunday to leave flowers at a memorial near the crime scene in support of the LGBTQ+ community.
“They’ll never erase us, we’ll never be gone,” they said. “As long as humanity has existed, we’ve existed. And as long as humanity exists, we will exist. We will not be removed.”
Suspect convicted of ties to Islamic extremism
Ballout traveled to Lebanon in 2025 with the goal of going to Syria to join the Islamic State group, Berlin prosecutors said Sunday.
There, he made contact with several people who were presumed members of the militant group — or at least he believed them to be, prosecutors said. He was arrested in Lebanon last year and sentenced by a military court to three months’ imprisonment for offenses including incitement to religious and sectarian conflict.
He returned to Germany after completing his sentence, where he was arrested at the Berlin airport.
In May, a juvenile court in Berlin convicted Ballout of preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state, as well as publishing Islamic State propaganda on his Instagram account and other charges, prosecutors said.
The court handed down a suspended sentence of 1 year and 10 months in youth custody, which Berlin prosecutors have appealed.
The court said it took Ballout’s months of pre-trial detention in Germany and Lebanon into account. It also said it considered that Ballout had confessed to the crimes, appeared to distance himself from the militant group and no actual threat had ever materialized.
He was released from detention pending the appeal.
Berlin’s Pride festival is one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ celebrations
According to police, a white van drove into the Tiergarten park around 10 p.m. and hit several people before colliding with a tree. The closing party at the Pride festivalknown as Christopher Street Daywas ongoing at the time next to the Brandenburg Gate, a short distance away. The party followed a parade with some 80 trucks that had made its way through downtown Berlin earlier in the day.
The attack did not occur at the festival, along its route or at the closing party. Rather, the violence took place a few hundred meters (yards) away on a track in the Tiergarten park. The van drove into a crowd that was likely a mix of festivalgoers and other locals or visitors.
Police said a woman was killed.
On Sunday afternoon, hundreds of mourners gathered at a memorial at the iconic gate. They hugged each other and laid down flowers, candles, rainbow flags and homemade signs, including a cardboard one that said: “the only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
Hundreds of thousands had come to Berlin to celebrate on Saturday, though it’s unclear how many were still at the festival by late evening. It’s one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ+celebrations.
“We are simply stunned by what happened,” said Andre Lehmann, a top official with the main national LGBTQ+ association, LSVD+. “This suspected attack hits the heart of the queer community.”
Amsterdam says it will celebrate freedom in the wake of Berlin attack
Chancellor Friedrich Merz vowed that law enforcement would find the suspect.
“I would like to say this to Christopher Street Day participants here in Berlin but also across Germany: Don’t let yourselves, let us not let ourselves, be intimidated,” he said. “These acts have only one purpose: They aim to divide our society. They want to take away from us the most important thing we have: Namely our openness and our freedom.”
Dobrindt said he expected security measures at other major events in Germany, including Pride events elsewhere, to be reviewed and if necessary significantly strengthened.
Berlin has seen Islamic extremist attacks before. In December, 2016, a rejected asylum seeker from Tunisia plowed a hijacked truck into a Christmas marketkilling 13 people and injuring dozens. He was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.
In February last year, a Spanish tourist was stabbed and seriously wounded at Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial, an attack that saw a Syrian man convicted in March and sentencedto 13 years.
This week, Amsterdam will be hosting World Pride alongside its own annual Pride celebrations. Mayor Femke Halsema said authorities and organizers “are closely monitoring the security situation” after the Berlin attack but aim to prevent any extra measures getting in the way of celebrating freedom and love.
Katy Perry lambasted the Trump administration over the weekend for using her song “Firework” in one of its social media videos about U.S airstrikes on Iran.
The pop star said she was “deeply appalled and angry” over the use of her song in a White House TikTok video featuring bombs exploding set to Perry’s 2010 hit — specifically featuring her lyrics “boom, boom, boom.” A caption on the video, which has more than 6 million views, reads: “Iran has been warned.”
“I did not approve this, I was not asked, and I absolutely do not condone it. I wrote this song to be an anthem of hope, healing, and inner strength for people going through their darkest personal moments,” Perry wrote in an X post on Saturday. “To see a message of self-worth and upliftment weaponized to soundtrack destruction and violence is a complete violation of everything my song stands for. My music is for bringing people together, not celebrating warfare.”
White House aide Kaelan Dorr responded to Perry, saying“This you?” He posted Perry’s own military-themed music video of her song “Part of Me,” in which she’s dressed in combat uniform.
Perry, who is in a romantic relationship with former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is among many other prominent artists who have rebuked the Trump administration for using their music in videos on official accounts.
Kesha publicly admonished President Donald Trump’s administration in March after the official White House TikTok account used her song “Blow” in another video about military action. “Stop using my music, perverts,” she said on X.
The Filipino American pop star Olivia Rodrigo expressed outrage at the Trump administration after it used her song “All-American Bitch” last fall in a video threatening deportations. She responded to the Department of Homeland Security at the time, saying, “Don’t ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda.”
While the video is still visible, Rodrigo’s music has been removed.
And last December, Sabrina Carpenter condemned the administration for using her song “Juno” in a video about immigration arrests, which she called “evil and disgusting.”
“Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda,” the singer wrote at the time.
Ariana Grandealso posted on her Instagram story last September criticizing the administration over its immigration policyanti-LGBTQ+ messaging and alleged censorship. In response, White House Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai told her, “Save your tears,” a reference to one of her songs. Last month, after the White House used her song “Bye” in an anti-immigration video on TikTok, she commented“Please do not ever use my music in relation to this barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense.”
Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Taylor Swift. The White House poked fun at the mega star earlier this month when shemarried Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce at Madison Square Garden. Its official X account posted photo-shopped images of the venue’s billboards blaring, “TRUMP IS YOUR PRESIDENT.” After she endorsed his opponent, Kamala Harris, in the 2024 election, Trump wrote, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”
Last year, Trump went after Bruce Springsteenfor insulting the president at a concert in Manchester, England, where the Boss called the administration “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous.” Trump called the Grammy-award winning artist “highly overrated,” writing in part, “Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy.”
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
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