Gov. Matt Bevin pardons man serving life sentence for sex abuse of 6-year-old stepdaughter

Joe Sonka | Courier Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Matt Bevin won't contest election loss to Andy Beshear "I truly wish the attorney general well as the next governor of this state as he assumes these responsibilities," Bevin said.

Gov. Matt Bevin has pardoned a man serving a life sentence for sexually abusing and sodomizing his 6-year-old stepdaughter 20 years ago.

In his pardon and commutation order on Friday, Bevin wrote that Paul Donel Hurt had been wrongly convicted in Jefferson County in 2001 of three counts of sodomy in the first degree and two counts of sexual abuse in the first degree.

"Hindsight is never truly 20/20, but it appears to me, and to many others including the judge who sentenced him, that Paul Donel Hurt has been wrongly convicted and imprisoned for nearly 20 years," Bevin wrote.

In 2015, Hurt's accuser recanted her testimony in an evidentiary hearing. However, the trial court did not set aside the conviction, with Jefferson Circuit Judge Audra Jean Eckerle ruling that her recantation was an inconsistent, "shifting account" that was "no more likely to be true than false."

The Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in August 2018, noting that after the retirement of Jefferson Circuit Judge Stephen Mershon — the judge in the original conviction — he began corresponding with Hurt in prison and contacted the victim, after which time she recanted.

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Expressing concern over the "highly unusual circumstance" of Mershon "confronting her directly and privately," Eckerle sided with the prosecution, which contended that Mershon "altered" the victim's memory, "and by using judicial coercion and intimidation, that he overcame her, causing her to claim falsely that she had lied (at) trial."

Bevin's order pardoning Hurt stated that "in light of all that is known and all that will forever remain unknown, it does not seem possible that justice can be truly served in this instance."

"Nonetheless, with the power vested in me as Governor of the Commonwealth, I believe it is my moral duty to commute the remaining sentence of Paul Donel Hurt and to grant him the full and unconditional pardon that he has requested," Bevin wrote.

The governor added that "it is my fervent hope and prayer that Mr. Hurt will find his faith in God and in his fellow man restored, and that he and his family will be abundantly blessed as he experiences the restoration of his freedom in the years ahead."

Mershon picked up Hurt at the state prison in La Grange on Friday and drove him to his mother's house, the retired judge told The Courier Journal on Monday.

"I believe an innocent man is now free," said Mershon, adding that "Bevin did the right thing."

Mershon — who tried to help Hurt receive a pardon from former Gov. Steve Beshear at the end of his second term in 2015 — said Hurt started crying uncontrollably when told of his pardon and did not stop during the drive to his mother's house.

"We'll never know what happened 19, 20 years ago," said Mershon, noting that while there is a chance "this guy could have been playing me, that he was the best con artist in the world," he strongly believes Hurt did not commit the crime.

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The governor's pardon of Hurt bears a striking similarity to his Chief of Staff Blake Brickman's reasoning for firing a top staffer of Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton this summer. He accused the staff member of improperly advocating for the pardon of an inmate serving a long sentence for sexually abusing his own stepdaughter.

In the June 15 statement to The Courier Journal, Brickman wrote that Adrienne Southworth, Hampton's deputy chief of staff, was fired "because she demonstrated remarkably poor judgment in a number of ways, not the least of which were repeatedly advocating that the Governor commute the sentence of an individual who is serving a twenty-five year sentence for raping his own step-daughter."

Spokespersons for Bevin did not respond to an email and voicemail asking if Hurt was the person for whom Southworth was advocating, and if it was hypocritical to fire her while pardoning Hurt. Southworth also did not respond to a voicemail.

Jeffery Cooke — the spokesman for Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Wine, whose office handled the post-conviction matters of Hurt's case — said "there were issues raised during those post-conviction matters that make it easy to understand why the governor would question the validity of the conviction."

"We can kind of understand why he would consider doing it,” said Cooke, who added that Hurt was also in poor health.

In Mershon's Aug. 27 letter to Bevin making the case for Hurt's pardon, the former judge said that while Wine objected to his requests for then-Gov. Steve Beshear to issue a pardon in 2014 and 2015, the prosecutor now "has agreed to take no stance. While he cannot support Mr. Hurt's application, he also will not object if it is granted."

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Pamela Darnall, president of Family & Children’s Place, a regional child advocacy center that evaluates and treats children for sexual abuse, said she was shocked by the circumstances of the pardon.

In general, children do not lie about sexual abuse, she said.

“The research continually bears out that the majority of kids are not making it up,” she said.

Darnall said she was disturbed that Mershon later sought out the victim, which the prosecution argued caused her to change her story.

“These are people in power. This is a judge," Darnall said. “This is what kids deal with when people who are the adults ... pressure these kids.”

Nor could Darnall understand Bevin’s willingness to pardon Hurt.

“A leader steps in and says I simply believe it wasn’t true so I’m going to pardon him,” she said. “What kind of message does that kind of behavior send to our kids and send to adults who have lived with their secrets for so many years?”

Bevin issued 15 other pardons on Friday, including one for Justin Derrick Wibbels, who was convicted of wanton murder in Laurel County in 2015. Jerry Thompson was killed in 2014 when his vehicle was struck by a car driven by Wibbels.

The governor wrote that Wibbles "was involved in a tragic accident and has been incarcerated as a result of his conviction for wanton murder. This was not a murder."

Bevin also pardoned five women who had their sentenced commuted by former governors — four by Steve Beshear and one by Ernie Fletcher — each of whom had been a victim of domestic violence convicted of killing her abuser.

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Deborah Yetter contributed reporting to this story.

Reach reporter Joe Sonka at jsonka@courierjournal.com or 502-582-4472 and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courierjournal.com/subscribe.