David Hearn of the United States competes in the Men’s C1 Canoe Final at the 2000 Summer Olympics at Penrith Whitewater Stadium in Penrith, Australia.
David Madison | Getty Images
U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn has been indicted by a grand jury in Washington, D.C., on felony counts of destruction of property in connection with an alleged leak in the sealant at Lincoln Memorial Pool, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Thursday.
Pirro said Hearn intentionally and “violently” damaged the sealant in the two-foot-square pool on June 19, which was a top priority for the president to renovate Donald Trump this year.
Hearn, 67, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted of the felony charge in the District of Columbia. He was detained on June 19 on charges of hooliganism.
The three-time Olympian said The Washington Post after his arrest that he was riding his bicycle when he stopped by the Reflecting Pool to look at him. While there, he said, he reached into the water to feel how a partially torn piece of blue liner felt, after which he was arrested.
“I didn’t screw anything up,” Hearn told The Post. “I did not destroy, break or rip off anything. By the time I realized what was happening, I was handcuffed.”
But Pirro, speaking at a press conference, said, “This was a deliberate act of damage to the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, which the National Park Service worked really hard to restore and witnessed.”
“National Park staff observed Hearn forcefully and violently pulling up and using both hands to remove the bottom liner,” Piro said.
“According to witnesses, Hearn damaged approximately two square feet of sealant from the bottom of the pool,” the prosecutor said.
When a park service employee told Hearn to stop, he yelled at her and told her she cared too much about the reflecting pool, according to Peer.
Hearn’s attorneys, Norm Eisen and Mary Dormann, said in a statement: “Davy Hearn is innocent.”
“These allegations are outrageous and should alarm every American,” the attorneys said.
“This indictment reflects an effort by the administration to shift the 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 average citizen based on a fictional narrative. The justice system exists to determine facts, not to provide political cover.”
Pirro said the reflecting pool is one of the national landmarks and monuments “that belong to all of us.
“And they must be protected for future generations,” she said.
The prosecutor said her office is handling about six other cases related to the alleged vandalism at the Reflecting Pool.
“Some of them will be misdemeanors and some of them may be less like a misdemeanor, but we’re looking at each case based on the evidence and we’re looking at all the reports, and right now we’re talking about a dozen and a half more misdemeanors,” Piro said.
The reporter asked Pirro how she blamed Hurd for Trump’s pardon of more than a thousand people involved in rioting at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, which led to the adjournment of a joint session of Congress that confirmed Trump’s defeat of former President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
“Are you really talking about the 6th of January?” asked Pyro.
“Yes,” answered the reporter.
“I’m not,” Pyrrho said.
