Former GOP gov busted over child support at job: report

Controversial former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin was arrested Thursday by the Bourbon County Sheriff’s Office, according to two dispatchers at the Paris-Bourbon County 911, according to Louisville Public Media.

“Bevin was reportedly arrested while playing an extra on the set of a Christian film production there,” reports LPM. “The former governor had an active bench warrant against him in Jefferson County, where a judge found him in contempt of court for not turning over required financial documents to the court in his divorce and child support case.”

Mediaite reports Bevin has been mired in a dispute over child support payments. In March, Jefferson County Family Court Judge Angela Johnson found Bevin in contempt after she said he ignored her orders to furnish the court with financial records regarding his son Jonah Bevin.

In one hearing, the ex-governor had been ordered to appear in the courtroom, but instead, he joined via Zoom, claiming that he was on his way back to Kentucky after attending a funeral. Bevin did not say where he was dialing in from. That, reports Mediaite, was the second time Bevin appeared in court via Zoom after being ordered to show up in person.

“Your arrest warrant will be issued today,” Johnson told him on March 24. She later issued a written order for his arrest and sentenced him to 60 days in jail unless he posts a $500 cash bond and submits “financial records, bank statements, tax returns and all other documents that would show the receipt of income.”

LPM reports 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. After his firing by Kentucky voters, Bevin marked his departure by handing out over 600 pardons, leading the FBI to begin asking questions about Bevin and how he made his selections for pardons.

It was unclear on Thursday why Bevin was arrested more than five months after the warrant was issued.