A Kansas Court of Appeals panel considered arguments Tuesday about whether a disgraced Kansas City, Kansas, police detective’s involvement in a 1997 murder case should result in an overturned conviction.

Brian Betts, who spent 25 years in prison before being released last year, hopes to prove his innocence by pursuing the legal challenge. But judges who heard his appeal questioned whether the evidence shows Detective Roger Golubski pressured a witness to implicate Betts in the murder of Golubski’s 17-year-old nephew.

Golubski was arrested in 2022 and faces federal charges of kidnapping, sexual assault, and being paid to protect a child sex-trafficking ring. He denies the allegations, and his trial is scheduled for December.

Allegations of corruption surrounding Golubski are detailed in the KCUR investigative podcast Overlooked. His alleged misconduct came to light with the exoneration in 2017 of Lamonte McIntyre, who said Golubski helped frame him for a double murder in 1994. McIntyre spent 23 years in prison and won $12.5 million in a civil lawsuit in 2022.

Betts’ conviction was based on testimony from his uncle, who then recanted before sentencing. The uncle said two detectives — one of them white with a mustache — pressured him into implicating Betts. In 2021, the uncle identified Golubski as the man with the mustache.

In a hearing held Tuesday at the University of Kansas School of Law, a three-judge panel questioned attorneys about the uncle’s credibility and lack of documentation that would affirm whether Golubski interviewed the uncle. But Kevin Shepherd, a Topeka-based attorney who is representing Betts for free, said Golubski’s involvement with the case is certain because trial records show the detective was sharing evidence with the victim’s family members.

Shepherd said that at the time of Betts’ conviction, there were no witnesses who could testify about Golubski’s “history of strongarming witnesses.” Now that Golubki faces accusations of alleged coercion and police misconduct, Shepherd argued, Betts’ conviction should be overturned.

Kayla Roehler, deputy district attorney for Wyandotte County, said the limited police records from the case show only one detective interviewed Betts’ uncle, and it wasn’t Golubski.

“There is no mention of Roger Golubski in a single police report,” Roehler said. “There is nothing that shows Roger Golubski was involved in this case.”

She acknowledged Betts’ original trial unfolded during a period where officers engaged in dereliction of law. Still, she said, “just saying his name is not a smoking gun” that warrants a new trial.

In an interview after the hearing, Betts said police pressured his uncle into lying by threatening to charge the uncle with murder if he didn’t cooperate. Betts, who has campaigned to remove Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree from office, expressed frustration with prosecutors who block him from clearing his name.

“The biggest question mark to me, the biggest strike against their ethics and their morals, is that they know that these officers were engaging in just despicable actions, misconduct on every avenue and every facet, and they are still protecting them,” Betts said. “They’re still trying to uphold their illegal practices and their illegal actions”

Betts said the outcome of his appeal is “the biggest thing in the world, because I have a negative stamp on me.”

“When you Google my name and my history, I don’t want this false conviction … attached to me,” he said. “And they’ve robbed me of 25 years and four months of my life.”

Judges Jacy Hurst, Lesley Ann Isherwood and Rachel Pickering will rule on the appeal.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

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