Former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin entered a Louisville courtroom on Friday in an orange jumpsuit and under the custody of the local jail, seeking leniency from the judge who had already sentenced him to 60-day jail sentence for civil contempt of court.
Lambasting the former governor’s “complete disregard and utter disrespect” he showed for the court, Jefferson Family Court Judge Angela Johnson did not lend him such mercy, stating that he must serve out the remainder of his sentence.
“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,” Johnson told Bevin. “I will not allow you to taint the integrity of this court or any court with that kind of behavior.”
Johnson issued an arrest warrant for Bevin in June related to his ongoing divorce and child support case, citing his repeated refusal to turn over requested financial records to the court.
Bevin did not turn himself in or appear in-person at the following court hearing in July, but was arrested Thursday evening by the Bourbon County Sheriff’s Office, where he was playing an on-camera “featured extra” in a Christmas movie being filmed at a Paris horse farm.
He was booked into the Louisville Metro Detention Center later that night and went before the judge Friday afternoon.
Bevin entered the court all smiles, but did not say anything during the hearing, after which he was escorted out by law enforcement and taken back to jail.
Prominent Louisville attorney Scott Cox was hired by Bevin after his arrest and made his case to Judge Johnson for leniency. He said the judge could give relief by reducing Bevin’s sentence or declare the matter a criminal contempt order to give the former governor more rights.
“We think you do have great discretion,” Cox said. “You could order him to serve time, including all of that time on home detention, without having a big trial or anything else on this criminal contempt. So we would ask you to give consideration to doing that.”
Cox noted that Bevin had been arrested and served a night in jail, which was enough to get him to comply with the court going forward.
“To the extent that the court maybe rightly wanted to get his attention, I can tell you that you have accomplished that,” Cox said. “You've gotten his attention.”
John Helmers, the attorney for Bevin’s estranged son Jonah — who is intervening in Bevin’s divorce trial seeking child support — rejected Cox’s argument and said he should serve out the sentence he could have avoided over many months.
“He knew that he had been found in civil contempt and sentenced, and then for the last 60 or 90 days, he's been a fugitive from this court,” Cox said. “Mr. Bevin is not different than the other citizens that come before this court.”
Cox objected when Helmers said Bevin shouldn’t just be sent “home to his multi-million-dollar mansion,” saying that type of argument “has no place here.”
Johnson sided with Helmers, though she suggested she may be open to other relief for Bevin after 30 days.
“That is not to say that I won't be open to after 30 days, after demonstration of improvement, after whatever… some sort of relief,” Johnson said. “But you are going to serve these 60 days as of today. You may remand him to custody.”
Cox and Bevin’s ex-wife Glenna Bevin did not speak to reporters after the hearing.
“Rather than comply with the court orders, he was a fugitive for months, and decided to be an extra on a movie set rather than comply with the law of the Commonwealth,” Helmers told reporters.
Melina Hettiaratchi, another attorney for Jonah Bevin, told reporters her client feels both validation that his dad was held accountable, but also sadness.
“To have a parent choose to go to jail over support you is horrific,” she said. “No child should have to go through that.”
Jonah is seeking child support from his parents due to the Bevins allegedly abandoning him in a notoriously abusive Jamaican facility for troubled youth that was shut down while he was there.
Bevin, a Republican, was elected governor in 2015 and served one term. Despite Kentucky being a conservative state, he narrowly lost his reelection bid to current Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear in 2019.
