Background: The Lincoln Memorial and drained Reflecting Pool as seen from the Washington Monument on July 20, 2026 in Washington, DC (Photo by Emily Alff/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images). Inset left: Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn listens as his attorney Norman Eisen speaks after he pleaded not guilty to allegedly damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Thursday, July 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.). Inset right: U.S. D.C. Attorney Jeanine Pirro at a press conference at the Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C., on Friday, February 6, 2026. (Photo by Annabelle Gordon/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images).
A former Olympian accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., is asking for the case against him to be dismissed, claiming authorities have destroyed evidence that would prove his innocence.
David Hearn, who competed in the Olympics as a canoeist, is charged in D.C. Superior Court with one count of felony destruction of property valued at $1,000 or more.
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On June 19, Hearn, 67, was stopping at the Reflecting Pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial during a bicycle ride, according to the grand jury indictment handed down on July 2. Authorities allege he “pulled up and removed a portion of the pool’s bottom liner,” though Hearn has maintained he “touched a piece of coating that had already detached, released it when asked to do so by a park employee, and left the pool in no worse condition in which he found it.”
In announcing the indictment, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said that “deliberate acts of destruction set back real progress” from President Donald Trump’s renovation efforts for the nation’s 250th anniversary. “Vandalism at treasured places like the Reflecting Pool is an affront to our shared history and the dignity of our national heritage. These monuments belong to all of us, and we will protect them—and hold accountable those who seek to deface or diminish them.”
A week after the indictment was handed down, Hearn pleaded not guilty. In a 14-page motion to dismiss, he says that the government has meddled with evidence, and the “only appropriate remedy” to the government’s actions is for the case to be thrown out.
“Despite the importance of the pool liner to the case, in the brief period since June 19, 2026, the same government that presented and returned the indictment against Mr. Hearn has fenced off the scene, begun draining the pool yet again, and publicly announced its intention to repair the very liner whose condition is at issue,” the motion to dismiss reads. “It has done so despite a written defense demand for preservation of the physical evidence transmitted on July 8, 2026, the day before arraignment.”
The filing continues:
The spoliation of evidence caused by the government’s actions is not hypothetical or prospective. Draining the pool is itself an alteration of the evidence: It changes the coating’s environment, dries and shrinks compromised liner material, disturbs and removes detached fragments along with debris, and subjects the pool bottom to foot traffic, equipment, and cleaning by the very agency whose employees are the witnesses who would serve as fact witnesses at trial. And each day of continued work degrades what remains. Moreover, the government has not confirmed that the liner has been preserved intact, instead merely reciting boilerplate language to assert compliance with its discovery obligations. And earlier today, the defense’s inspection confirmed that spoliation of evidence has taken place.
On Monday, Hearn’s attorneys wrote that there were “irregularities” in the grand jury’s proceedings leading up to his indictment. They said that “based on the discovery provided to date, the Government’s sole grand-jury witness on damages testified that the property was already damaged before Mr. Hearn allegedly touched it; that the same repairs would have been required regardless of Mr. Hearn’s conduct; and that he could not quantify any loss attributable to that conduct.”
“Additionally, other irregularities in the government’s presentation of the evidence to the grand jury further call into question whether the grand jury was misled in a manner that substantially influenced the decision to indict and prejudiced Mr. Hearn,” the motion for disclosure of grand jury minutes reads. “According to the witness, the pool was leaking more than one million gallons of water per week; its expansion joints had exceeded their service life; and the liner already contained a rip.”
The defendant has a status hearing in his case set for next week. If he were to be found guilty, he could face up to 10 years in prison.
Hearn competed in three Summer Olympics, earning his best finish of ninth at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, according to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
The post ‘The grand jury was misled’: Ex-Olympian charged with damaging DC Reflecting Pool claims authorities destroyed evidence that would exonerate him first appeared on Law & Crime.
