Republican Gov.s Adopted Son Claims Parents Abandoned Him In Abusive Jamaican Facility Then Tried To Disappear Him In Ethiopia After Going Public

By Deborah Yetter, Kentucky Lantern, March 7, 2025

A resolve has entered an emergency conserving expose in opposition to ragged Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin sought by his adopted son, Jonah Bevin, now 18, directing him to invent no longer occupy any contact with Jonah until the topic could perchance also be heard in court docket.

The expose does no longer encompass Glenna Bevin, Jonah’s adoptive mother, however directs her to appear on the March 19 court docket hearing.

In a statement to the court docket, Jonah alleges his adoptive folks, Matt and Glenna Bevin, deserted him in a brutally abusive facility in Jamaica final 365 days and sought to send him to Ethiopia, his birthplace, final month after he went public along with his allegations in an interview with the Kentucky Lantern.

“I now mediate they had been attempting to fetch me to recede,” Jonah’s statement stated.

The Bevins, who are divorcing, did not straight answer to a requirement for commentary.

The expose bans Matt Bevin from any contact or communication with Jonah pending the hearing and requires he remain on the very least 500 toes a long way from him. It moreover requires Bevin to immediate renounce any firearms in his possession within 24 hours to the Jefferson County sheriff.

In his interview, Jonah stated that on the Jamaican facility, he continued rather a lot of months of severe beatings, loss of life threats, waterboarding and being buried in sand sooner than Jamaican minute one welfare authorities shut down the Atlantis Leadership Academy in early 2024, citing abusive prerequisites. They eradicated eight youths, all Americans.

Jonah and minute one advocates who labored to relocate the youths occupy stated the Bevins declined to act on his behalf or return him to america. As a consequence, he for a time ended up in the custody of the Jamaican minute one welfare plan.

It’s a startling turn of events sharp the ragged Republican governor who campaigned on making improvements to the shriek’s adoption and foster care plan and his accomplice, who as first lady, made minute one welfare her predominant focus.

Matt Bevin, as a candidate and later governor, in most cases talked about the Bevins’ adoption of four younger people from Ethiopia, in conjunction with Jonah, took them to public events along with the couple’s 5 biological younger people and posted frequent photos on social media.

Jefferson Family Courtroom Mediate Angela Johnson granted the expose Friday only some hours after Jonah, who traveled to Louisville with minute one advocacy lawyer Ruin of day J. Submit Thursday, filed the petition in Jefferson County.

Johnson moreover is the resolve handling the pending divorce case of the Bevins,

Jonah moreover filed a police legend Thursday with Louisville Metro Police, alleging he used to be deserted in Jamaica by the Bevins.. A finest reproduction of the legend shouldn’t be any longer but available.

Submit, who specializes in what she calls “broken adoptions,” stated they are hoping the legend will instructed authorities in Kentucky to occupy in mind criminal prices in the case.

Essentially based on Kentucky law, abandonment occurs when a guardian or guardian “deserts the minor in any feature below circumstances endangering his existence or neatly being and with intent to abandon him.”  It’s a Class D criminal, the least serious, and carries a penalty of 1 to 5 years in penal advanced and an even of up to $10,000.

Jonah, in an interview Thursday, stated he’s pursuing the case attributable to he has discovered that many more youths, in conjunction with adoptees, occupy suffered from maltreatment at “shy teen” residential services that claim they’ll aid emotional and behavioral issues.

“There’s many other younger people cherish me that want aid,” he stated. “They want their voices to be heard.”

Submit stated her focus on over with to the power in Jamaica, the set apart she traveled to offer free lawful aid to the youths eradicated from Atlantis, underscored the magnitude of the screech.

“My procedure as an licensed real for younger people has constantly been and simplest been to manufacture a distinction,” she stated. “There’s this full population of broken adoptions, a significant, significant amount.”

Jonah, in his statement, moreover particulars a pair of incidents of abuse and neglect he stated involved him after the Bevins adopted him at age 5 and a group of three siblings from Ethiopia in 2012. He stated he used to be slapped, struck and grabbed and at one level assaulted by somebody linked to the family.

Jonah, stated he used to be final homeless in Utah after he grew to became 18, stated in the statement he would favor to arrive relieve to Kentucky however is vexed to attain so attributable to without court docket safety.

“As a result of the nature of the threats, abandonment and neglect, I in actuality occupy sensible reason to mediate that extra damage can also occur without the issuance of an instantaneous conserving expose,” his statement stated.

Submit has stated she is working to secure a more lawful placement for Jonah.

In his first public feedback since he left the Jamaican facility in February 2024, Jonah told the Kentucky Lantern final month he experienced brutal beatings and other mistreatment on the Atlantis Leadership Academy, which promoted itself as “the ideally suited dwelling for healing.”

It used to be one of rather a lot of residential services his folks despatched him to, starting at age 13 he stated.

After Jamaican authorities eradicated the youths from Atlantis, Jonah stated the Bevins made no effort to arrive relieve to his motivate, leaving him in custody of that nation’s minute one welfare plan.

Advocates for the youths stated they had been unable to reach the Bevins to put collectively his return to america.

Jonah stated he and two other boys at Atlantis, moreover Murky and both adopted, had been the final to recede Jamaica after their adoptive families took no action to relief return them.

“At that level, I didn’t mediate no one cared about us — especially the Murky younger people,” he told the Kentucky Lantern.

Adopted at age 5 from an Ethiopian orphanage, Jonah stated that after turning 18, he used to be residing on his personal in Utah with out a toughen from the Bevins, who are neatly to set apart and are residing in Anchorage, an prosperous enclave east of Louisville. He stated he used to be residing in temporary housing, supporting himself with segment-time improvement work.

On the Jamaican facility, prerequisites in conjunction with beatings, waterboarding, threats, ridicule and food deprivation are alleged in additional than a dozen federal complaints pending in Florida in opposition to Atlantis, and its friends. Jonah shouldn’t be any longer amongst ragged residents who occupy filed the complaints however is arresting about joining the litigation, Submit stated.

Amongst defendants in the complaints in opposition to Atlantis are the power’s founders, Randall and Lisa Cook dinner, a husband and accomplice who occupy no longer replied to any of the complaints.

“Randall Cook dinner allegedly fled the jurisdiction of Jamaican law enforcement authorities in April 2024 to high-tail prosecution,” one of many complaints stated. It stated a pair of ragged group members are going via criminal prices of abuse and neglect in Jamaica.

The Cooks could perchance not be positioned for commentary and the Atlantis phone amount does no longer work.

Jonah, in an interview, described a violent beating from facility group after he attempted to high-tail three days after his arrival at Atlantis in December 2023.

“I used to be bleeding from my nose, mouth,” he stated. “They made me spruce it up with a mop. They made me spruce up my personal blood.”

After that, “I used to be getting crushed each day.”

He and 7 other youths, all however one below 18, would remain there until Jamaican minute one welfare authorities conducted a shock inspection in February 2024, striking off them.

Jonah stated that he and two other youths, all Murky and all having been adopted in america, had been deserted by their families and positioned in custody of Jamaican minute one welfare authorities.

He and Submit stated that attorneys for Atlantis and a few folks seemed at court docket hearings in Jamaica arguing that the youths had been exaggerating or lying relating to the abuse and that the power desires to be reopened. That effort failed and Jamaican authorities started working to take a look at out to fetch the youths dwelling.

Bevin, a Christian conservative, served as governor from, from slack 2015 via 2019 sooner than he used to be defeated in his divulge for a 2nd time interval by fresh Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat.

As governor, Bevin promoted adoption and known as for sweeping enhancements to the shriek minute one foster and adoption plan he stated had obstructed the Bevins’ effort to adopt a bit one in Kentucky.

All the draw via his 2015 marketing campaign, Matt Bevin used to be highly serious of Kentucky’s adoption plan and stated in a 2017 interview on KET his want to reform it used to be “the driving reason I made the decision to bustle.”

Matt Bevin stated in the KET interview the introduction of four adopted Murky younger people who spoke no English into his family went smoothly.

“It has been a extraordinarily, very seamless transition,” Bevin stated.

But Jonah had a assorted recollection, telling the Kentucky Lantern that he as early as age 8 didn’t feel cherish he fit into the family, struggling to grasp English and attempting to beat discovering out disabilities. He stated he clashed with others in the home, in conjunction with Glenna Bevin, whom he stated used to be largely in control of overseeing the younger people.

“I used to be getting in bother,” he stated. “When I couldn’t articulate English, if I did one thing harmful, I couldn’t realize.”

At age 13, Jonah stated the Bevins despatched him to what could perchance be a series of out-of-shriek residential services for teenagers sooner than he misery up at Atlantis in Jamaica in slack 2023. He stated he used to be taken there in handcuffs by a “transport group” hired to transfer him from a residential heart in Utah.

Cases at Atlantis first reported final 365 days in the Sunday Events of London, attracted world headlines after celeb hotel heiress Paris Hilton flew to Jamaica in April to motivate the youths as segment of her advocacy work to reform what she calls the “shy teen” industry that victimized her. She has created a foundation, 11:11 Media Affect to promote her advocacy.

Jonah stated he had no thought of Hilton’s celeb or advocacy however used to be grateful for her toughen and the attention generated by her focus on over with.

Submit, who stated she specializes in working with younger people from “broken adoptions,” stated the screech is more neatly-liked that folk realize and that a for-revenue industry has developed purporting to relief such youths, It involves consultants, who aid folks identify services, transport groups that steal youths—once rapidly forcibly–to such areas and loosely regulated residential services, some commence air america.

Meanwhile, she stated a Gofundme legend she started to relief toughen Jonah is doing neatly, with more than $13,000 raised in only some week. He already has ancient one of the well-known most proceeds to aquire garments and other requirements, she stated.

Editor’s level to: This article used to be republished from Kentucky Lantern below a Artistic Commons license.