KY Court of Appeals frees former Gov. Matt Bevin from jail sentence while it considers appeal

Former Gov. Matt Bevin will be immediately released from a 60-day jail sentence while the Kentucky Court of Appeals decides whether his incarceration was the proper punishment for his contempt of court charges, the Appeals Court ruled late Wednesday.

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.

His lawyers appealed the decision.

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.

In the appeal, Bevin’s lawyers argued that he had 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 court agreed.

“This conclusion neither excuses Matthew’s prior noncompliance nor determines the merits of his petition,” Jones wrote in the ruling. “It recognizes only that Matthew has made a colorable showing that his present incarceration may be unlawful and that, because the injury is the ongoing loss of his physical liberty, relief granted only after final disposition of this original action could come too late to provide a meaningful remedy.”