"After rescue from abusive facility, Jonah Bevin wants accountability"

‘I don’t have anybody’: Adoptive teen son of a KY governor talks about life on his own

Key takeaways:

"Youths at Atlantis “experienced cruel, inhumane, and despicable abuse, which included but is not limited to: being water boarded, tortured, physically assaulted, punched, slapped, and beaten, were deprived of food and water, were isolated from their family, were subject to torment and psychological torture, and were trafficked by being subjected to forced manual labor and involuntary servitude,” according to allegations in one of 13 pending lawsuits.

The lawsuit also alleges youths at Atlantis received none of the promised education or treatment for emotional problems they were supposed to receive."

"Among defendants in the lawsuits against Atlantis are the facility’s founders, Randall and Lisa Cook, a husband and wife who have not responded to any of the lawsuits.

“Randall Cook allegedly fled the jurisdiction of Jamaican law enforcement authorities in April 2024 to escape prosecution,” the lawsuit said. It said multiple former staff members are facing criminal charges of abuse and neglect in Jamaica.

The Cooks could not be located for comment and the Atlantis phone number does not work.

Jonah said he met Randall Cook once, when he got off the plane in Jamaica.

“Hello, you’re going to do well in the program,” Jonah recalled him saying. Jonah said he never saw Cook again.

McFarland said the goal is to try to recover some compensation for what youths suffered at Atlantis.

“We’re fully prepared to be in it for the long haul to step in and do whatever it takes for these kids to get justice,” he said."

"Jonah was among four children adopted from Ethiopia in 2012 by the Bevins who then had five biological children.

Jonah said he was 5 when he came to the household from an orphanage, along with a sibling group of three children he was not related to that the Bevins also adopted. He said he grew up being told his mother in Ethiopia was dead.

In 2015, three years after the adoption, Matt Bevin, a Republican, conservative Christian and business entrepreneur, launched a campaign for governor of Kentucky, which he won, serving one term from late 2015 through 2019 before he was defeated in his bid for a second term by current Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat.

As governor, Bevin promoted adoption and called for sweeping improvements to the state child foster and adoption system he said had obstructed the Bevins’ effort to adopt a child in Kentucky."

"This is the driving reason why I made the decision to run, because it needs to be fixed,” Bevin said in a 2017 interview on KET.

Glenna Bevin made prevention of child abuse a primary focus as first lady.

Matt Bevin said in the KET interview the introduction of four Black children who spoke no English into his household went smoothly.

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

But by then, Jonah said he already had begun feeling like he didn’t fit into the Bevin household.

“It just didn’t work,” he said. By age 8, “I told them I didn’t want to be in that house.”

Jonah said he was still trying to master English, struggling with a reading disability and clashed with others in the house. He said he didn’t get along with Glenna Bevin, left largely in charge of the children by her husband who was away on business or politics.

“I was getting in trouble,” he said. “When I couldn’t speak English, if I did something wrong, I couldn’t understand.”

As a young child, Jonah said he attended a school for students with learning disabilities because of his difficulties with reading and writing.

When Matt Bevin launched his campaign, he sometimes took his nine children to political events which Jonah said he hated, believing the candidate did so “to boost himself.”

"When I was 16 years old, I was ripped from my bed in the middle of the night and transported across state lines to the first of four youth residential treatment facilities,” Hilton said last year in testimony before Congress about what she said is a poorly regulated, $23-billion-a-year industry. “I was force-fed medications and sexually abused by staff. I was violently restrained and dragged down hallways, stripped naked, and thrown into solitary confinement.”

"Punishment, in addition to violent beatings with fists, sticks or belts, consisted of being forced to sit on a stool for days at a time, staring at a wall. Meals sometimes consisted of meager portions of plain rice and water — or no meals at all.

Jonah, who is 5-foot, 11-inches tall, said he weighed about 135 pounds when he entered Atlantis. By the time he was removed, several months later, he weighed 115.

“I was the skinniest,” he said, referring to the boys at Atlantis.

He said the boys decided to start keeping handwritten notes to document their ordeal and when they learned one youth who had turned 18 was being released to return to the United States, gave him the notes to try to get attention about conditions at Atlantis.

“I said, ‘If you ever get out, you’ve got to tell them everything,’” Jonah said,

In a statement he gave to Post, Jonah describes beatings as well as other torments including being buried in sand, being “waterboarded,” and having saltwater put in his face and eyes.

“The staff would bury us alive, putting sand in our mouth & eyes while we were screaming, laughing in our face while we suffered,” it said. “They would make us fight each other for their own amusement & they would be drinking, smoking weed on shift.”

"On Feb. 8, 2024, Jonah and the other youths were sitting in a circle reading books — the only educational activity allowed, he said — when they saw vehicles approaching.

“I seen a bunch of government cars come up to the house,” Jonah said.

Official-looking individuals with badges around their necks got out and approached the facility. Meanwhile, staff had fled the building and were hiding behind it.

“Are we getting out?” Jonah said he asked his friend. “We all knew from there we were getting out.”

Paris Hilton to the rescue! She had also suffered in "youth facilities that advertise themselves as experts in working with difficult kids"

"Ultimately, four of the seven boys returned to the United States with parents or others willing to assume custody. Only Jonah and two others, all adopted and all Black were placed in custody of Jamaican child welfare officials.

“All of them were just abandoned and trying to make it on their own,” Post said. “For vulnerable children, to be abandoned in such a way after experiencing more horrific abuse and neglect is unconscionable.”

Eventually, the remaining three youths returned to the United States in various placements, Jonah to residential settings, first in Florida, then Utah.

For now, Jonah said he doesn’t think much about the future.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m just trying to figure it out.”

"He said he’s getting by working part-time construction jobs and finding temporary places to live in Utah, where he’s staying.

“I’m a little broke,” he said. “I have two pair of shoes, a toothbrush, my high school diploma and my passport. That’s the only things I have.”

The Bevins, who are in the midst of a divorce, did not respond to requests for comment for this article through their lawyers.

Jonah said he’s had no support from the Bevins, who are wealthy and live in Anchorage, an affluent enclave east of Louisville. Matt Bevin’s wealth, from a career in finance, was estimated in excess of $13 million when he ran for governor in 2015."

Full article: https://kentuckylantern.com/2025/02/28/i-dont-have-anybody-adoptive-teen-son-of-a-ky-governor-talks-about-life-on-his-own/