Former governor delays child support hearing by asking KY Supreme Court to remove judge

LOUISVILLE — A hearing Friday over whether former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin’s estranged son, Jonah Bevin, is entitled to child support or educational assistance has been postponed after Bevin’s lawyers asked the state Supreme Court to remove the judge from the case.

Jonah, who alleges his adoptive parents, Matt and Glenna Bevin, abandoned him at age 17 in a brutally abusive youth facility in Jamaica, had hoped to make his case for support at the March 27 court hearing. He is one of four children the Bevins — now divorced — adopted in 2012 from Ethiopia.

Jonah, now 19 and living in Utah in temporary housing with few resources, said in a statement he is deeply frustrated by yet another delay in his year-long effort to get support.

“I didn’t ask for any of this,” Jonah said in a statement provided by one of his lawyers. “I just want a safe place to live and a chance to move forward.”

Bevin’s effort to delay resolution of the case “hurts more than anything,” Jonah said. “It makes me feel like I never really mattered.”

Dawn J. Post, a New York lawyer and child advocate assisting Jonah, said he is on “the verge of homelessness” and “fighting just to meet his most basic needs.”

By contrast, his wealthy parents are fighting “not to protect him but to avoid responsibility,” Post said.

John H. Helmers Jr., who represents Jonah with his law partner Malina Hettiaratchi, said the court had no choice under Kentucky law to postpone the hearing after Matt Bevin’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to remove Jefferson Family Court Angela Johnson but said it was disappointing.

“This is an obvious tactic to avoid personal accountability,” he said in an email. “The family court had no choice but to follow the law and wait for Kentucky’s chief justice to rule on the motion.”

Bevin and his lawyer, Jesse Mudd, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bevin arrest warrant pending

Meanwhile, Matt Bevin — who has been traveling out of state and attended the last two hearings in the case by Zoom — remains subject to arrest for contempt of court under a warrant signed March 24 by Johnson, who said he had failed to turn over complete financial records.

Johnson sentenced him to 60 days in jail for contempt for repeatedly disregarding court orders to produce the records. The arrest warrant says he may avoid jail by paying a $500 full cash bond and producing his financial records.

It isn’t clear how Bevin — who claimed in  court he has tried to produce the records — plans to resolve the contempt charge or whether he has returned to Kentucky.

Helmers said the warrant appears to be outstanding.

It is the latest twist in a long-running case in family court in which Jonah intervened in his parents’ divorce case — where a proposed financial settlement is pending — seeking support.

Bevin, after unsuccessfully appealing to keep his son from intervening, filed a motion earlier this week seeking to have the judge removed, claiming she was biased.

Bevin claimed Johnson’s rulings against him were motivated by her desire for media attention because of his former role as governor from 2015-2019. He also said the judge has made false claims about him in his ongoing divorce case with his ex-wife Glenna including that the two had tried to conceal their financial information.

‘A political pinata’

“She is using me as a political pinata,” Bevin said in an affidavit, accusing the judge of “making up the rules as she goes along.”

Glenna, who has disclosed her financial information to Jonah’s lawyers, is not subject to the contempt proceedings.

The initial motion to have Johnson removed by Chief Justice Debra Hembree Lambert was deemed procedurally defective, based on information from Supreme Court staff.

Bevin’s lawyers refiled the motion but the Supreme Court cannot review it and issue a ruling until a certified copy is received by mail, according to a notice from court staff, Helmers said.

In an order Thursday, Johnson said Bevin’s filing contains no grounds for her to recuse herself from the case.

“Matt’s affidavit contains descriptions of nothing more than a belief that Judge Johnson will not be impartial and a recitation of adverse rulings,” her order said.

His affidavit, Johnson said, “asserts, essentially, that this court has been unfair to him because it refuses to afford him special treatment.”

“The court believes Matt’s intention has been to delay and frustrate the hearing scheduled for March 27, 2026, on the issue of child support and the adequacy of Jonah’s education,” Johnson’s order said.

The judge added: “Upon a final ruling, he has the right to appeal any unfavorable outcome. He does not, however, have the right to indefinitely delay proceedings.”

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This article, “Former governor delays child support hearing by asking KY Supreme Court to remove judge,” has been republished from the Kentucky Lantern under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.