Three-time U.S. Olympian David Hearn has been indicted in Washington, D.C., for allegedly “maliciously” destroying the liner on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Hearn was indicted within the Superior Courtroom of the District of Columbia on a single depend of destruction of property value $1,000 or extra, a felony cost that carries as much as 10 years in jail.
U.S. Legal professional for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro introduced the costs at a press convention on Thursday, saying Hearn will face “accountability.”
“The indictment is in response to an incident that occurred on June 19 of 2026 during which the defendant Hearn ripped a chunk of just lately put in sealant on the underside of the reflecting pool on the Lincoln Memorial,” she mentioned. “The proof exhibits, we’ll show past an affordable doubt, that Hearn willfully destroyed property on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.”
U.S. Legal professional for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro speaks throughout a press convention on the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the District of Columbia on July 2, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Pirro introduced fees associated to the alleged vandalism of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
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Pirro on Thursday alleged that Hearn was “forcefully and violently” pulling up the liner of the pool. She alleged Hearn “broken roughly two sq. ft of sealant from the underside of the pool.”
The U.S. lawyer mentioned a Nationwide Parks Service worker informed Hearn to cease, however as an alternative he allegedly yelled on the worker. Pirro claimed he was additionally impolite to that worker.
Hearn allegedly didn’t use a weapon, and used his palms to allegedly harm the pool, based on Pirro.
Hearn beforehand informed ABC Information that police arrested him after he touched a chunk of blue coating that was partially indifferent from the underside of the Reflecting Pool.
The Olympic canoeist mentioned he went for a motorcycle experience on June 19 and stopped by the pool as a “curious, involved citizen” and that he “was in a position to attain out and contact the sting of that that was nonetheless connected on the backside and dealt with it a bit bit.”
“I didn’t take away, I didn’t harm, I didn’t rip, tear, break, destroy or hurt any a part of the Reflecting Pool,” Hearn mentioned.
Attorneys for Hearn known as Thursday’s indictment “outrageous” in a press release.
“Davey Hearn is harmless. These fees are outrageous and ought to be alarming to each American,” mentioned Norm Eisen, co-founder and government chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, and Mary Dohrmann, senior counsel at Washington Litigation Group.
“This indictment displays the administration’s effort to shift blame for their very own failures,” they mentioned. “On the eve of our nation’s Independence Day, Individuals ought to be deeply involved by the misuse of presidency energy towards an strange citizen primarily based on a concocted narrative. The justice system exists to find out info, to not present political cowl.”
David Hearn in motion in the course of the US Whitewater Kayak/Conoe Olympic Trials on the Ocoee River within the Cherokee Nationwide Forrest in Ducktown, Tennessee, April 9, 2000.
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The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has been plagued with algae and peeling paint because the Trump administration accomplished a $16 million renovation of the landmark.
President Donald Trump has blamed the problems on vandals, together with one he mentioned used a boxcutter or knife to make a 300-foot gash within the pool. When requested by ABC Information on Thursday in regards to the president’s declare, Pirro mentioned, “Somebody deliberately did an amazing quantity of harm to the pool, and you may really see the place all of the reducing is.”
When requested if she may share an image of the harm and the cuts, Pirro responded: “Once I file a cost, I will be comfortable to indicate you an image, alright? What I am making an attempt to do, is we’re looking for out who did it, OK. And till we get to that time, I am not going to have the ability to, you already know, focus on something greater than there was great harm that was precipitated.”
