A 67-year-old Bethesda man who competed on TeamUSA during four Olympic Games was indicted Thursday on a felony charge that could send him to prison for a decade — for what he says was touching a piece of liner that was already falling off the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
What’s happening: A D.C. grand jury indicted David Hearn on one count of felony destruction of property, a charge under D.C. law that applies when damage exceeds $1,000. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro alleged Hearn “forcefully and violently” ripped a two-square-foot section of the pool’s newly installed blue sealant liner from the bottom of the pool with his bare hands during a June 19 visit.
Why a Grand Jury: Grand jury indictments are historically easy for prosecutors to obtain — the standard is probable cause, the defense presents no evidence, and the proceeding is entirely one-sided. The old legal adage holds that a skilled prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich. The Trump administration has leaned on grand juries as a tool in high-profile cases it wants to frame as serious federal matters, because an indictment carries the weight of a formal legal finding without requiring the government to yet prove its case in open court. For the administration, which has made the Reflecting Pool renovation a symbol of patriotic restoration ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary, a felony indictment sends a public message — regardless of what ultimately happens at trial.
What Hearn says: Hearn flatly denied it. He said he stopped at the pool during a long bike ride, noticed a piece of the liner was already peeling away from the bottom, and reached into the water to touch it. He said he did not rip or remove anything. His attorneys, Norm Eisen and Mary Dohrmann, called the charges “outrageous” and said the indictment is an effort to pin blame on a private citizen for a renovation that was already falling apart.
Who is David Hearn: Hearn is not a random tourist. He is one of the most accomplished American canoe slalom athletes of his generation, competing for the United States at the 2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing, 2012 London, and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. He won multiple U.S. national championships. After his athletic career, he founded a company that manufactured composite materials for watercraft — giving him direct professional experience with how materials perform in water environments.
The Pool’s Problems: The Reflecting Pool recently completed a $14 million renovation. Shortly after the work wrapped up, the new blue sealant liner began peeling and algae began accumulating. The Trump administration blamed deliberate vandalism for the failures. Hearn is one of several people arrested or cited in connection with the pool. No evidence of organized or deliberate vandalism has been made public by prosecutors or any other authority.
What the charge means: To sustain a felony destruction of property charge under D.C. law, prosecutors must show the damage exceeded $1,000. The government has not publicly explained how it calculated the damage attributed specifically to Hearn, or how it established the liner was intact before he arrived. A hearing is set for D.C. Superior Court July 9. If convicted, Hearn faces up to 10 years in prison.
The bigger picture: The Reflecting Pool renovation was part of a broader Trump administration push to restore more than 50 parks, 48 monuments, and 22 fountains ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary. In announcing the indictment, Pirro framed the charges in explicitly patriotic terms, calling the alleged vandalism “an affront to our shared history.” Hearn’s defense attorneys framed it differently — as a prosecution built to deflect from a renovation that failed on its own.
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