Former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin is facing a 60-day jail sentence after failing to turn over all documents ordered by a court for his divorce and child support case.
In an order Friday afternoon, Judge Angela Johnson wrote that Bevin “holds the keys to his own jail cell. By consistently refusing to comply with Orders that he produce documents after having multiple chances to comply, he has locked the door behind himself.”
For over a year, Jefferson County Family Court has been attempting to calculate how much Bevin might have to pay in child support. Bevin had previously turned in entirely redacted documents and said he had not filed a tax return since 2021.
At last week’s hearing, Judge Johnson warned Bevin that failure to turn over the documents by June 5 at noon would “result in 60 days to serve and a $500 fine, and that's it. That’s the end of it. You will serve the time, sir.”
Minutes before the noon deadline, Bevin’s attorneys provided some of the documents along with an emergency order requesting an extension. But Judge Johnson rejected it, issuing an arrest warrant for Bevin and sentencing him to the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections.
It is not immediately clear when Bevin would be brought into custody – as of last Friday, he was at his vacation home in Bethel, Maine. He failed to appear in court that day despite being ordered to, saying via Zoom that damage from a “very large boulder” required him to remain at his Maine house.
Bevin was held in contempt of court for failing to appear last week, but avoided jail time by paying a $250 fine. This time, the judge’s order provides no fine that Bevin can pay to avoid jail.
This is the latest twist in Bevin’s ongoing divorce and child support saga.
Bevin tried to have Judge Johnson removed from his case, but in early May the Kentucky Supreme Court rejected his claims against Johnson.
Jonah Bevin, his estranged, adopted son, is seeking financial support related to alleged abuse and abandonment when he was a minor, as his parents sent him to a notorious Jamaican facility when he was 17 years old.
Jonah Bevin told the Kentucky Lantern that he was “beaten every day” at the facility and that Matt Bevin later offered to send him to his birth family in Ethiopia.
This story has been updated.
