Bevin appeals jail sentence to Kentucky Court of Appeals

Saying a judge has “slammed the door shut and thrown away the key,” a lawyer for former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin is asking the state Court of Appeals to order his immediate release from jail for contempt of court.

Bevin, 59, was arrested Sept. 3 and lodged in the Jefferson County jail to serve a 60-day sentence for contempt for failing to produce financial documents a judge had ordered him to provide in an ongoing legal battle with his estranged, adopted son, Jonah Bevin.

Jefferson Family Court Judge Angela Johnson had sentenced him for contempt after finding he failed to release all documents she had ordered he produce as part of his divorce case with his ex-wife, Glenna, in which Jonah is seeking support.

Bevin also skipped a July 28 hearing the judge had ordered him to attend in person over the matter. The one-term Republican governor was arrested Thursday while working as an extra on a Christmas movie being filmed at a Bourbon County horse farm. 

Jonah, 19, has alleged the Bevins abandoned him at age 17 at a brutally abusive youth facility in Jamaica and is seeking support for living expenses and education. Jonah is one of four children the Bevins, who have nine children,  adopted from Ethiopia.

Glenna Bevin has testified in court that Jonah was aggressive and threatening as a teen and the couple sought multiple placements and treatment for him.

In sentencing Matt Bevin for contempt Friday, Johnson said he had ignored multiple court orders and opportunities to comply.

“You have done nothing to show the court that you are willing to act in good faith, and I cannot reward that with a reduced sentence or an alternative sentence or some form of relief for you, because you have shown this court that you are not going to do what you’re ordered to do because you don’t think that it should be this way,” she said.

Matt Bevin’s motion filed Sept. 9 by lawyer Jesse Mudd with the appeals court asks for emergency relief for him to be released from jail while it considers his appeal of the contempt finding and sentence.

Bevin already has produced over 1,000 pages of financial documents and, because the case involving his son’s claims for support has been submitted to the judge for a decision there is nothing further he can do to meet requirements of the court, it said.

His continued incarceration, it said, “amounts to nothing more than punishment for his past conduct.”

The appeals court had not ruled on Bevin’s petition by Thursday afternoon.