Former Kentucky governor arrested while playing an extra in Christmas movie
Former Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin was arrested on Thursday, September 3 in Paris, Kentucky by the Bourbon County Sheriff’s Office while working as an extra on “The Greatest Christmas Gift of All.”
Matt had an active bench warrant issued by Jefferson County, where a judge found him in contempt of court for failing to provide required financial documents in his ongoing divorce and child support case related to his adopted son Jonah Bevin. He was transported to Louisville Metro Corrections following his arrest around 6 p.m.
Background on his legal dispute
Rather than appearing in the courtroom, Matt joined a March hearing via Zoom, stating he was on his way back to Kentucky after attending a funeral. The former governor did not specify where he was calling in from.
Judge Angela Johnson issued two arrest warrants over the summer against Matt in the case, with the first warrant issued for his failure to appear in person at a May court hearing, which he blamed on a “very large boulder” going through his vacation home in Maine.
The judge ordered Matt to post a $500 cash bond and submit financial records, bank statements, tax returns and all other documents that would show the receipt of income to avoid a 60-day jail sentence. He had not complied.
Matt’s continued absence
The arrest Thursday came after months of escalating tension between Matt and the court. He alleged in a filing in March that the judge was making rulings based on a desire for media coverage, stating in court documents, “She is using me as a political piñata.”
When Matt did not appear in person for a July 28 court hearing in Louisville, both his ex-wife Glenna Bevin and estranged son Jonah testified in person. The former governor had largely been absent from the proceedings physically.
His son commented on his absence at court, saying, “It’s Matt Bevin. It’s not shocking to any of us.”
Jonah Bevin’s time at the Jamaican facility
Jonah was adopted by the Bevins from Ethiopia in 2012 and he alleges that the former governor used him to “boost” his 2015 gubernatorial campaign but the adopted son’s case goes deeper than typical custody matters.
When Matt launched his campaign, he sometimes took his children to political events. Describing that, Jonah told Kentucky Lantern in 2025, “It stressed me out. I had a bunch of trauma from orphanages. I wasn’t good with large groups of people.”
He said in court filings that his parents abandoned him at a notoriously abusive Jamaican facility for troubled youth that was shut down while he was there. “I got beat up by a bunch of staff members,” he said. “I was bleeding from my nose, mouth. They made me clean it up with a mop. They made me clean up my own bl**d.”
Jonah Bevin had a difficult time with the Bevins
Jonah was five years old when he arrived from an orphanage, part of a sibling group of three unrelated children the Bevins also adopted that same year.
What the Bevins described publicly as a seamless transition had more going on behind. Jonah struggled with a severe reading disability and the immense challenge of learning English as a second language. By age eight, he knew he didn’t fit: “It just didn’t work. I told them I didn’t want to be in that house.”
“I was getting in trouble,” he recalled. “When I couldn’t speak English, if I did something wrong, I couldn’t understand.”
On the other hand his adoptive mother, who made prevention of child abuse a primary focus as first lady, was left largely in charge of the children while her husband pursued politics.