Olympian David Hearn indicted in Reflecting Pool destruction
U.S. Olympian kayaker David Hearn has been indicted by a grand jury in Washington, D.C., for criminal damage to property in connection with his alleged tearing of sealant at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Thursday.
Pirro said Hearn deliberately and “violently” damaged two square meters of sealant in the pool on June 19, which was a top priority for President Donald Trump to replace this year.
Hearn, 67, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted of the felony charge filed in the District of Columbia. He was arrested on misdemeanor charges on June 19.
The three-time Olympian told Washington Post He said he stopped to look at the Reflecting Pool while riding his bike after his arrest. While there, he said he reached into the water to feel what a partially severed piece of blue lining felt like, and was subsequently arrested.
“I didn’t damage anything,” Hearn told The Post. “I didn’t destroy, break or rob anything. When I realized what was happening, I was being handcuffed.”
But speaking at a news conference, Pirro said, “This was an intentional act to damage the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, which members of the National Park Service have worked hard to restore and have witnessed.”
“National Park staff observed Hearn pulling the bottom liner up and down with both hands in a really strong and violent manner,” Pirro said.
“According to witnesses, Hearn damaged approximately two square meters of sealant on the bottom of the pool,” the prosecutor said.
When a Park Service employee told Hearn to stop, Hearn yelled at him and told him he was paying too much attention to the Reflecting Pool, according to Pirro.
Hearn’s lawyers, Norm Eisen and Mary Dohrmann, said in their statement: “Davey Hearn is innocent.”
“These charges are outrageous and should be alarming to every American,” the lawyers said.
“This indictment reflects the Administration’s effort to shift blame for its own failures. On the eve of our nation’s Independence Day, Americans should be deeply concerned about the abuse of government power against the ordinary citizen based on a fabricated narrative. The justice system exists to determine facts, not to provide political cover.”
Pirro said the Reflecting Pool is “one of those national landmarks and monuments that belong to all of us.”
“And they need to be preserved for future generations,” he said.
The prosecutor said his office is handling six other cases involving allegations of vandalism at the Reflecting Pool.
“Some of these will be misdemeanors and some may be less infractions, but we review each case based on the evidence and we review all reports, and we currently have about a half dozen more misdemeanors,” Pirro said.
A reporter asked Pirro how Heard responded to Trump’s accusation that Trump pardoned more than a thousand people who participated in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, which led to the adjournment of the joint session of Congress that confirmed Trump’s defeat to former President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
“Are you really talking about January 6th?” Pirro asked.
“Yes,” the reporter replied.
“I’m not,” Pirro said.
