How a Maine home is part of a former Kentucky governor’s legal troubles
A warrant for the arrest of former Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin was issued Friday by a Louisville family court judge, capping a weeks-long dispute over financial documents in a child support case brought by his estranged adopted son — a case that has pulled the Republican’s western Maine vacation property into the legal fray.
Jefferson County Family Court Judge Angela Johnson ordered Bevin, 59, taken into custody to serve a 60-day jail sentence after he missed a June 5 deadline to produce financial records. The order leaves no option for Bevin to pay a fine in lieu of incarceration. As of Friday afternoon, Bevin had not surrendered to authorities, and his current location was unknown.
“He holds the keys to his own jail cell,” Johnson wrote in her order.
The contempt finding stems from a long-running case filed by Jonah Bevin, 19, who is seeking financial support from his adoptive father. The younger Bevin has alleged in court filings that he was abandoned and abused after Matt and Glenna Bevin sent him to a youth facility in Jamaica when he was 17. The couple, who divorced last year, adopted Jonah from Ethiopia when he was 5, along with three other siblings; they also have five biological children.
The procedural timeline accelerated in late May. Bevin was ordered to appear in person in Louisville but instead attended a hearing via Zoom. From a screen, he told the judge he was at his vacation home in western Maine dealing with damage caused by a “very large boulder.” Johnson rejected the explanation, held him in contempt, and levied a $250 fine — which Bevin paid to avoid immediate jail time at that stage.
The judge then ordered Bevin to turn over a slate of financial documents by June 5. His attorneys submitted a portion of the requested material minutes before the deadline and filed an emergency motion for an extension. Johnson denied the request and issued the arrest warrant.
Bevin, a businessman who grew up in Shelburne, New Hampshire, and attended Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine, has maintained property in the area for years. During the May hearing, he referred to being in Bethel, though town officials noted he owns a home in the nearby Oxford County village of Bryant Pond — the same community where media personality Tucker Carlson once planned a Fox News studio.
The Oxford County Sheriff’s Office did not respond Friday to inquiries about whether it had been asked to assist in locating Bevin.
Through an attorney, Bevin issued a statement this month calling his son’s request for retroactive support “not allowed by law in Kentucky or any state in America,” warning it would create “legal mayhem.” He added that his and his ex-wife’s love for Jonah “has never waivered from the moment he was adopted by our family when he was 5 years old.”
Attorneys for Jonah Bevin characterized the statement differently: “an offer of blackmail (intended to) look like help.”
Bevin previously sought to have Johnson removed from the case, arguing she was biased and using him as a “political piñata.” The Kentucky Supreme Court denied that request in early May.
A Republican who served a single term from 2015 to 2019, Bevin was unseated by Democrat Andy Beshear in the 2019 gubernatorial election. He has not responded to phone messages from the Press Herald requesting comment this week.
