Olympic canoeist indicted after allegedly tampering with Reflecting Pool
An Olympic canoeist was indicted by a grand jury on a felony destruction of property charge for allegedly vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which President Donald Trump's administration has recently renovated.
David Hearn was arrested by U.S. Park Police on June 19 and initially charged with misdemeanor destruction of government property, USA TODAY previously reported. In the July 2 indictment in DC Superior Court, Hearn is accused of "maliciously" breaking or destroying lining material on the bottom of the Reflecting Pool and causing more than $1,000 of damage.
"Today is about accountability for damaging a national resource, a national treasure," Washington, DC U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said at a July 2 press conference. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Pirro accused Hearn of ripping a piece of recently installed sealant on the bottom of the Reflecting Pool. She said Hearn admitted to reaching down into the pool, and that National Park Service employees saw him removing the bottom liner with both hands.
When an employee told Hearn to stop, he allegedly shouted at her that she cared too much about the pool and asked her why she cared since it wasn't her pool, according to Pirro.
Lawyers for Hearn denied the allegations following his arrest, accusing Trump's administration in a statement of treating ordinary conduct as criminal. USA TODAY has also reached out to Hearn for comment.
"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," the lawyers, including former Ambassador Norm Eisen, a founder of the Democracy Defenders Fund, said in the statement.
Following his arrest last month, Hearn told the Washington Post he reached into the Reflecting Pool and was able to "grab" the end of a "flapping piece" of a substance in the water but didn't remove it.
“I didn’t vandalize anything,” the 67-year-old man told the outlet at the time. “I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.”
Hearn's arrest was one of several that Trump touted last month, after he accused "vandals" of being responsible for damaging the Reflecting Pool, resulting in ruinous algae blooms and peeling paint. The accusations came after a $14.7 million renovation.
A top National Park Service official said in a sworn declaration before a federal court last month that the pool had been vandalized using a "sharp knife or razor."
The park service's deputy director for operations, Frank Lands, said in his sworn statement that the Reflecting Pool liner the Trump administration ordered redone ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary was deliberately cut. Lands’ statement gave no indication of how park officials concluded the liner was cut using a knife of some kind.
Asked by a reporter about others who have also been arrested for incidents at the Reflecting Pool, Pirro on July 2 said her office has about a half dozen other cases, including alleged misdemeanors and potential violations that fall below misdemeanors.
While the Trump administration insists the issues are the work of vandals, algae blooms in the Reflecting Pool are nothing new.
Historical records show algae has long been a recurring issue in the pool. After a $34 million renovation in 2012, the water turned into an "icky sea of algae" about a week after the pool was filled, USA TODAY previously reported. Workers were seen skimming the surface of the pool in the end nearest the World War II Memorial.
Algae blooms have plagued "every pool reopening since 1922," according to a statement the Department of the Interior provided to USA TODAY.
The pool is approximately 2,000-feet-long, running from the Lincoln Memorial toward the Washington Monument on the National Mall.
Hearn’s canoe career spanned several decades between the 1970s and 2000s, culminating in stints at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and Sydney’s 2000 Olympic Games. His best performance was a ninth-place finish in Atlanta. Outside of the Olympics, Hearn has earned 13 medals, including eight gold and five silver.
Contributing: Michael Loria, Michelle Del Rey, James Powel USA TODAY; Reuters
Drew Pittock covers national trending news for USA TODAY. He can be reached at [email protected].