Former Olympian faces 10 years jail if convicted over alleged Reflecting Pool vandalism

A grand jury in Washington has indicted a former Olympic canoeist on Thursday for allegedly vandalising the newly refurbished Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

David Hearn, 67, faces one felony count of malicious destruction of property tied to a June 19 incident in which National Park Service employees say they spotted him trying to rip a new liner that had been installed in the basin.

In response to the indictment, Hearn’s attorneys said he is the latest victim of an “outrageous” prosecution brought by allies of President Donald Trump.

“I didn’t vandalise anything,” Hearn said in an interview with The Washington Post after his arrest.

“I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realised what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.”

If the case goes to trial, it will test whether jurors are convinced by the Government’s arguments and evidence. The charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

US Attorney Jeanine Pirro has been dealt several court losses in recent months as juries deadlocked or acquitted defendants in high-profile cases, including a not-guilty verdict for a DC man who was charged with assault after throwing a sandwich at a federal officer during the administration’s law-enforcement surge in the city last year.

At a news conference Thursday, Pirro said Hearn was caught red-handed defacing a national monument.

National Park Service employees saw him “forcefully and violently pulling up and removing the bottom liner with both hands,” the prosecutor said.

Hearn shouted rudely at one employee who told him to stop, Pirro added, and an expert would testify that he caused more than $1000 in damage to an area covered by about two square feet of sealant.

“We will not allow our sacred monuments to be roped off, or diminished, or in any way impacted by disgruntled individuals who think that they and not the rest of the nation have the right to decide what should happen,” Pirro said.

“These landmarks and monuments belong to all of us, and they must be protected for generations to come.”

The case against Hearn comes amid a Trump administration push to crack down on alleged vandals the president has blamed for damaging the Reflecting Pool, where pieces of the recently added blue liner have been seen floating to the surface.

Hearn has said he was wrongfully detained while on a bike ride around the pool. He was initially charged with a misdemeanour count of destruction of government property.

The Bethesda, Maryland, resident previously told The Post that he reached into the water after noticing a piece of the pool’s blue liner had become partially detached.

Pirro disputed that account, saying the National Park Service employees who witnessed the incident “have no motive to lie.” Anyone vandalising monuments, she said, “will be held to account”.

Defense attorneys Norm Eisen and Mary Dohrmann said Hearn was being prosecuted to distract from the Trump administration’s botched work on the Reflecting Pool.

Hearn is a three-time Olympian who competed in the canoe slalom. He won two world championships in whitewater racing before retiring from active competition in 2002.

“These charges are outrageous and should be alarming to every American,” Hearn’s attorneys said in a statement.

“This indictment reflects the administration’s effort to shift blame for their own failures. On the eve of our nation’s Independence Day, Americans should be deeply concerned by the misuse of government power against an ordinary citizen based on a concocted narrative.”

Hearn’s arrest ignited a social media flurry as Trump and his allies blamed problems with the pool overhaul, including water quality and maintenance issues, on vandals and administration opponents.

Trump vowed last month that anyone who vandalised the pool could face lengthy prison sentences.

The President has also said someone caused damage by slashing at parts of the pool’s liner, but Pirro said Thursday that that individual has not been identified and that Hearn was alleged to have damaged the pool liner using his hands.

About a half-dozen other people have been arrested for incidents at the Reflecting Pool in recent weeks. Pirro described those cases as “misdemeanours, and some of them could be less, like a violation.”

The century-old Reflecting Pool has become controversial following the president’s decision to refurbish the concrete basin with a new liner. As government workers in recent weeks tried to combat an algae bloom in the reopened attraction, a new problem surfaced: chunks of the sealant broke free.

Asked to describe his actions, Hearn said: “I reached in there, and I was able to grab the end of that flapping piece, the already peeling piece. It was still attached to the bottom. I didn’t remove anything.”