Feds Drop Vandalism Charge Against Olympian After Admitting Contractor Botched Reflecting Pool Job

Federal prosecutors filed a motion Friday to dismiss the felony vandalism case against David Hearn, a 67-year-old three-time Olympic canoeist accused of tearing the lining of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The reason: new evidence shows the pool's own installation job was botched, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.

Hearn was indicted July 2 on one count of felony destruction of property, facing up to 10 years in prison. He'd pleaded not guilty. His story from day one, told to the BBC and others, was simple: he touched the water during a bike ride. Nothing more.

The government's original story was very different. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Hearn had grabbed and pulled at a loose section of the pool's coating, damaging it after he'd been told to stop by a National Park Service employee, according to Fox News Digital. President Trump went further, blaming "sick, deranged" vandals and claiming, in Pirro's telling, that one had used a box cutter to slash a 250-foot gash into the pool, according to The Atlantic.

That story fell apart under scrutiny. According to the 19-page filing reported by The Atlantic, prosecutors found damage "consistent all around the pool, even in the middle, where a vandal would not likely attempt to peel the lining." The damage pattern was consistent with a flawed installation rather than deliberate vandalism.

Interior Department withheld key records, prosecutors say

Pirro's office says the Department of the Interior gave prosecutors "barebones" reports before the indictment and failed to hand over records documenting extensive problems with the coating installation, according to Fox News. Only after the grand jury indictment did DOI turn over additional documents showing what prosecutors called a "rushed and botched installation" tied to the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, according to NPR and BBC News.

"Had DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment," prosecutors wrote, according to Fox News.

The documents reportedly show repeated failures of the lining during installation itself, not after, with extensive peeling throughout the pool, according to The Atlantic. Prosecutors say the rush was driven by a deadline: get the pool looking good before the America 250 independence anniversary celebrations around July 4.

That was a taxpayer-funded rush job. NPR reports the renovation cost $14 million; The Atlantic puts it at $16.4 million. Either way, it's a lot of money for a pool that turned green with algae blooms and started shedding its lining in chunks almost as soon as it reopened in June, a widely visible failure at one of the most photographed spots in the country, according to NPR.

Prosecutors asked the court to dismiss the indictment without prejudice, meaning the charge could technically be refiled later, according to Fox News. But with the government's own filing undercutting the vandalism theory, that seems unlikely absent new evidence.

Hearn's lawyers say an apology is owed

Hearn's legal team, Norm Eisen, Mary Dohrmann, and Steve Levin, didn't mince words. "The Trump administration's case against Davey Hearn should have never been brought," they said in a statement carried by BBC News and The Atlantic. "Its dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong. The government's approach was ready, fire, aim. The administration owes Mr. Hearn an apology."

Asked by the BBC whether Hearn plans legal action over the false accusations, he declined to comment.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Atlantic or NPR. Pirro's office declined to comment beyond the filing itself, according to The Atlantic.

The administration's side deserves fair statement: prosecutors say they acted on the information DOI and U.S. Park Police gave them at the time, and moved to correct course the moment better evidence surfaced. Pirro's office is on record blaming Interior for supplying incomplete records before the indictment, not admitting prosecutors invented the case out of thin air. That's a meaningfully different claim than deliberate malice, even if the result, an innocent man indicted on a felony carrying a decade in prison, is the same.

Hearn wasn't alone. At least three other people were charged with vandalism related to the pool, and five more received citations from police, according to a Trump administration official cited by CBS News and reported by the BBC. It's unclear whether all of those cases are also being dropped.

BBC News reports it has contacted Atlantic Industrial Coatings for comment; no response has been reported yet. The bigger question now is whether Interior officials face any consequences for allegedly withholding installation records from federal prosecutors, and whether taxpayers see any refund or penalty from the contractor whose work triggered a criminal case against an innocent man.