CINCINNATI — A federal jury convicted a former Blue Ash ICE deportation officer on four criminal charges on Thursday.
After deliberating for four full days, the jury found Andrew Golobic, 52, guilty of depriving a Honduran rape survivor of her rights, obstruction, destroying evidence and tampering with a witness.
The victim — who cried on the witness stand during several hours of testimony — accused Golobic of forcing her to have sex.
"He chose to violate his duties and became a predator, essentially a nightmare to those persons under his authority," U.S. Attorney Kenneth Parker told the I-Team following the verdict. "He is not above the law."
Golobic, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer from 2006 to 2020, supervised the victim in a government immigration program. He testified for four hours, and insisted the sex was consensual.
Although he was convicted of depriving her of her rights "under color of law," the jury found Golobic not guilty of aggravated sexual abuse, kidnapping and injuring her during sex at his home.
He was also found not guilty of violating the rights of a second woman he supervised in the ICE program.
That woman claimed Golobic forced her to have sex in exchange for him giving her back her passport.
That allegation prompted a charge of sex trafficking because he was accused of trading sex for something of value.
Golobic testified that he had sent a message to the woman that if she had sex with him he'd give her her passport.
"It was a complete joke," he testified. "That's how we talked."
The jury couldn't reach the required unanimous verdict on that charge. That count was declared a "mistrial."
But jurors convicted Golobic of obstructing the investigation into the alleged incident.
If he had been found guilty of sex trafficking, Golobic faced a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Golobic was the deportation officer who supervised the two women in the Alternative To Deportation (ATD) program, which focused on tracking non-citizens and getting them to court during the immigration process.
As a deportation officer, Golobic had the authority to set reporting requirements for participants, determine their level of supervision and make recommendations on whether they should be arrested and deported, according to court records and ICE documents.
Golobic testified that he had sex with other participants in the ATD program even though he knew it was "unethical."
But he insisted that he never forced them to have sex and he didn't try to influence witnesses or destroy evidence, even though he admitted deleting apps and conversations from his personal phone after the FBI asked him to surrender his phone as part of their investigation.
"There's no evidence that he deleted anything material to this investigation," Golobic's defense attorney Scott Rubenstein told the jury during closing arguments on Friday. "Andy is a career federal employee, a model citizen."
Rubenstein said Golobic "crossed the line" by having sex with non-citizens he supervised, and he deserved to lose his job and federal pension. But, Rubenstein told the jury Golobic didn't sexually assault or threaten the women.
"He doesn't have a threatening bone in his body," Rubenstein said.
Rubenstein told the jury the two women made up stories about Golobic so they could claim to be "victims" and remain in the U.S.
A woman in her 20s is suing Golobic, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, which is under DHS. She's asking for damages in excess of $75,000.
"She wants to get paid," Rubenstein told the jury. "She's not a vulnerable person."
According to the lawsuit, Golobic raped the woman, then after she repeatedly rejected Golobic's sexual advances, he made comments that convinced her Golobic would retaliate against her undocumented family and friends.
So, she returned to his home where he raped her again, according to the lawsuit.
The federal jury in the criminal case found Golobic not guilty of depriving her of her rights.
It's unclear how that may impact her lawsuit.
After the verdict, U.S. Marshals escorted Golobic back to the Campbell County Detention Center, where he has been detained there since December 2022.
"It's very significant," Parker said. "It reinforces to the public that individuals such as him — and I believe there are few of them in our system — that we will address them."
