An appeals court judge on Wednesday ordered the immediate release of former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin from the Louisville Metro Detention Center, where he has been incarcerated for nearly two weeks of a 60-day sentence for contempt of court.
Kentucky Court of Appeals Judge Allison E. Jones granted Bevin’s request for emergency relief, staying his contempt sentence due to his appeal “showing that his present incarceration may be unlawful” and did not give him adequate opportunity to remedy before his sentence ends.
“The resulting injury is both immediate and irreparable,” Jones wrote. “Matthew is presently incarcerated, and every day during which this original action remains pending represents an additional deprivation of his liberty. Unlike a monetary injury, time spent incarcerated cannot later be restored if Matthew ultimately prevails.”
The website of the Louisville jail no longer listed Bevin as incarcerated as of early Wednesday evening.
Bevin was sentenced to 60 days in jail in June for contempt of court and issued a warrant for his arrest by Jefferson Family Court Judge Angela Johnson, who said the former Republican governor had repeatedly violated her orders that he turn over all requested financial documents to the court in his ongoing divorce and child support trial.
After defying another judicial order in July by skipping an in-person hearing in that case, Bevin was arrested on the outstanding warrant earlier this month while working as an on-camera “featured extra” at the set of a Christmas movie being filmed in Paris, Kentucky.
Bevin’s attorneys requested leniency in a hearing the day after his arrest, but Johnson refused to reduce the sentence or allow him home incarceration, due to the “complete disregard and utter disrespect” he had shown for the court.
Jones’ order staying the enforcement of Bevin’s 60-day sentence stated that it was not vacating Johnson’s contempt of court finding or relieving Bevin of his obligation to produce the requested financial documents.
“This conclusion neither excuses Matthew’s prior noncompliance nor determines the merits of his petition,” Jones wrote.
Bevin’s attorney, Jesse Mudd, said he did not have an immediate comment on the order to release Bevin.
Judge Johnson is expected to rule before the end of the year on if his estranged son, Jonah Bevin, can intervene in his divorce case. Jonah alleges that when he was 17 his parents abandoned him at an abusive Jamaican facility after it was shut down, and is seeking child support for that period.
Glenna Bevin, Matt Bevin’s ex-wife, released a statement recently disputing Jonah’s claims of neglect.
Judge Jones was first appointed to the Court of Appeals in her northern Kentucky district in 2013 by former Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear, and subsequently elected to 8-year terms in 2014 and 2022.
