Former Kentucky Gov Matt Bevin was arrested Thursday in Paris by the Bourbon County Sheriff’s Office, turning an old Jefferson County court fight into a fresh legal problem for the once-powerful Republican. Two dispatchers at Paris-Bourbon County 911 said Bevin was taken into custody, and he was reportedly arrested while working as an extra on the set of a Christian film production.
The arrest matters now because Bevin was already under an active bench warrant in Jefferson County when he was picked up. That warrant grew out of a divorce and child support case in which a judge found him in contempt for not turning over required financial documents, a dispute that has followed him since he left office after winning in 2015 and narrowly losing reelection to Andy Beshear in 2019.
Jefferson Family Court Judge Angela Johnson has issued two arrest warrants over the summer in the case. The first came after Bevin failed to appear in person for a May court hearing. He said he missed that hearing because a very large boulder went through his vacation home in Maine, and the warrant was later rescinded after he paid a fine. Johnson then issued another bench warrant in June over the financial disclosures, and Bevin could not pay a fine to make that one go away.
By June 6, Johnson had sentenced him to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. Even so, Bevin did not appear in person at his next hearing on July 28 in Louisville. At that hearing, Glenna Bevin and Jonah Bevin testified in person, while Bevin had appeared in past hearings by Zoom video. A party also tried several times to join the hearing but was dropped after the person failed to identify themselves.
The friction in the case is plain: Bevin was already facing a jail sentence and fine, yet the warrant remained active enough for law enforcement to arrest him in Paris. Jonah Bevin is also seeking child support from his parents, and the record leaves the next step unresolved. What happens now will depend on how Jefferson County handles the contempt case and whether Bevin is brought before the court to answer the warrant that was already waiting for him.
