Judge orders jail time for former Gov. Matt Bevin over failure to produce financial information

Former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin has been ordered to serve 60 days in jail after he failed to meet Friday’s noon deadline for producing complete financial information in a court battle involving his estranged son, Jonah Bevin.

Bevin previously avoided two jail sentences for contempt of court in the case — once by trying to get Jefferson Family Court Judge Angela Johnson removed from his case and most recently, by paying a $250 fine for ignoring an order to appear in court in person.

But in a tersely-worded order Friday, Johnson indicated she means Bevin to serve the sentence in the battle that has lasted for more than a year as Jonah seeks support, alleging Bevin and his ex-wife, Glenna Bevin, abandoned him at age 17 in an abusive youth facility in Jamaica.

“Matt, as the perpetrator of civil contempt, holds the keys to his own jail cell,” Johnson wrote in her order. “By consistently refusing to comply with orders that he produce documents after having multiple chances to comply, he has locked the door behind him.”

In the arrest warrant issued at 1:21 p.m. Johnson denied Bevin’s request for more time to produce financial records the court has been seeking for nearly a year and ordered him to be arrested, serve 60 days in jail and pay a $500 fine.

At a May 29 hearing where Bevin failed to appear as ordered — saying he was dealing with an emergency after a “very large” boulder crashed into his Maine vacation home — Johnson indicated she was unwilling to tolerate any more delays if he failed to meet Friday’s deadline.

“That’s the end of it,” Johnson said. “You will serve the time.”

Neither Bevin nor his lawyer immediately responded to a request for comment about the judge’s order.

John Helmers Jr. and Melina Hettiaratchi, lawyers who represent Jonah, said in a statement Bevin had been given ample warning.

“It is fair to say at this point that Matt Bevin is a fugitive,” they said. “The judge’s order reinforces the simple fact that the rule of law applies to everyone here in Kentucky. Power, wealth, or political influence have no bearing and will not provide immunity.”

Bevin sought deadline extension

Just before noon Friday, Bevin filed a motion asking for more time to provide financial records, saying he was working to provide the required documents but asked to extend the deadline to June 15.

Bevin, a one-term Republican who served as governor from 2015 through 2019, also provided a statement through his lawyer, Jesse Mudd, defending his treatment of Jonah, one of four children the Bevins adopted from Ethiopia in 2012.

“We love our son, Jonah, and want him to become the man God created him to be,” it said. “That has never waivered from the moment he was adopted by our family when he was five years old.” The Bevins have nine children, all but one over 18.

“Both Glenna and I have contributed fully to the financial well-being and care of every one of our nine children and continue to do so for the sole child still in our home,” it said.

That claim conflicts with a court filing last year by Dawn J. Post, a New York lawyer and child advocate who helped Jonah and several other youths return to the United States after they were removed by Jamaican child welfare authorities from an abusive facility.

Post, in a sworn statement, said that resources the Bevins alleged they spent on Jonah’s care was mostly for a series of out-of-state residential facilities for Jonah, starting at age 13, culminating in his abandonment at age 17 at  the Atlantis Leadership Academy, a brutally violent youth facility in Jamaica that was shut down by child welfare authorities in 2024.

“The Bevins paid for pain, not protection,” Post’s affidavit said. “Jonah’s harm stemmed from the decisions of those responsible for his well-being, not his own actions.”

‘I don’t have anybody’: Adoptive teen son of a KY governor talks about life on his own

Youths at the facility were routinely beaten, deprived of food, denied medical care, threatened and got little to no education, Post’s affidavit said.

She also said the Bevins refused to try to arrange Jonah’s return to the United States and as a result, he was placed in Jamaica’s foster care system for a time.

Post said she, as a child advocate, spent three weeks in Jamaica in 2024 working on behalf of the youths removed from the facility, including Jonah, and said the Bevins were only parents who did not “engage” with the U.S. embassy or Jamaican child welfare authorities to assist in his care and return to the United States.

In fact, she alleged, Matt Bevin at one point sought to have the closed facility reopened and for Jonah to returned to it.

Bevins’ son seeking support to fund education

The case attracted international media attention after hotel heiress and celebrity Paris Hilton — an advocate for children in the so-called “troubled teen” industry — flew to Jamaica to aid the youths.

Jonah eventually returned to the United States for a placement she helped arrange with the aid of the U.S. State Department, Post said.

Matt Bevin in his statement alleged he and his ex-wife sought to keep the case private to protect Jonah, who he said had experienced problems as a teen with behavioral health, substance abuse and a criminal charge — apparently referring to a charge stemming from an altercation with his father.

Jonah, in a statement Friday provided by his lawyers, said he wasn’t “surprised that my parents are again now trying to put this on me.”

“I have been very open and public about my experience growing up in harmful and abusive environments. I want to make my story public so it never happens to another kid.”

His lawyers said Jonah, now 19, is living in another state with little income or support. They have said Jonah, who has been diagnosed with learning disabilities, lacks a valid high school diploma and has difficulty finding employment.

Their lawsuit intervening in his parents’ divorce case seeks support and help for Jonah in completing an education.

The Bevins’ divorce became final last year but the case is pending over a final, financial settlement and Jonah’s request for aid.

Bevin, in Friday’s statement, also renewed his criticism of the judge in the case, saying Johnson’s rulings “make a mockery of Kentucky and our court system” and that she “is using her elected platform for partisan purposes.”

Judge in Bevin divorce case can stay, Kentucky Supreme Court rules

He made similar claims earlier this year in a filing with the Kentucky Supreme Court attempting to have Johnson removed from his case for bias and treating him like a “political pinata.”

The high court last month found no basis for those claims and declined to remove Johnson from the case, sending it back to her for further action.

Johnson, at the May 29 hearing, told Bevin she treated him no differently from any other person in court.

“I treat you as I would every other litigant that appears in this courtroom,” she said. “I would be damaging trust in the court system if I gave you a pass.”