Ex-Olympian accused of Reflecting Pool vandalism pleads not guilty

A former Olympic canoeist who was indicted on a felony vandalism charge over an incident at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool pleaded not guilty at his first court appearance Thursday.

David Hearn, 67, and his legal team have denied the allegations, describing the case against him as an “outrageous” abuse of prosecutorial resources by the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump has launched a variety of remodeling and beautification plans at historic sites across the nation’s capital, sparking controversy and several ongoing lawsuits. Trump last month began blaming vandals for damaging the recently refurbished Reflecting Pool after chunks of its new blue liner started drifting to the surface.

Hearn’s arraignment took place Thursday morning in D.C. Superior Court as dozens of his supporters rallied outside, chanting “Let him go!” and wearing red, white and blue. Some attendees carried signs that read, “Davey’s a champ, not a scamp!”

A defense attorney, Mary Dohrmann, entered a not-guilty plea on Hearn’s behalf and pushed back at the hearing when a prosecutor requested that Judge Carmen McLean bar him from the Reflecting Pool while the case is pending.

Dohrmann said Hearn was initially cited with a misdemeanor, and was only later indicted on the felony charge. He is an “upstanding citizen” who was born in D.C. and has lived in the area almost his entire life, she said.

Dohrmann told the judge the Bethesda, Maryland, resident regularly represents the country in athletic events and is a three-time Olympian. The government’s evidence in the case, she said, was “weak.”

An assistant U.S. attorney, Kevin Reddington, said the government has “a lot of discovery” evidence supporting its case.

The judge released Hearn without imposing conditions requested by the prosecutor. With court congestion, McLean said, the case likely wouldn’t see trial before February 2027.

Hearn sat between his attorneys in a crowded courtroom filled with supporters and members of the news media. He spoke only briefly, replying “Yes, ma’am” when a clerk advised him of the penalties for missing future court hearings.

Justice Department prosecutors have in recent days begun formally charging several people arrested at the Reflecting Pool, though the other cases thus far are misdemeanors, and only Hearn faces a felony count.

In Hearn’s telling, a piece of the pool’s newly installed liner had come apart as he was biking in the area on June 19, and he reached down to grab the flap without removing it.

“I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything,” he told The Washington Post in an interview after his arrest.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro painted a starkly different picture at a news conference last week. A Trump ally who serves as the top federal prosecutor in D.C., Pirro said National Park Service employees witnessed Hearn “forcefully and violently” pulling at the liner with both hands and turning belligerent when told to stop. By the time he was done, Pirro said, Hearn had caused more than $1,000 in damage to nearly two square feet of sealant.

Anyone caught defacing national monuments “will be held to account,” Pirro said, and “this is a priority not only for the president but for myself as well.”

A grand jury indicted Hearn on one count of malicious destruction of property, a felony under D.C. law that carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years for those convicted at trial.

Paul Flack and Bob Frederick, who have known Hearn for five decades and used to paddle with him, said outside the courthouse Thursday that Pirro’s description of Hearn sounded out of character for the former Olympic canoeist.

“The only thing I’ve seen Davey ever do violently is hit that damn paddle in the water,” Frederick said.

“And when he does, that boat moves,” Flack quipped.

Defense attorneys Norm Eisen and Dohrmann said in a statement last week that the government’s “concocted” account of what happened at the Reflecting Pool was the Trump administration’s “effort to shift blame for their own failures.”

Three other people have been charged with misdemeanor vandalism offenses in connection with the Reflecting Pool and had arraignment hearings Wednesday.

In each case, police allege in court records the person peeled and removed a piece of paint from the pool. Police said one person was holding a piece of the liner in his hand and told an officer he had torn it off. Another had a piece in her purse, authorities alleged. Two of the people declined to comment; the other could not be reached for comment.

A key question in all the cases will be whether the defendants damaged the liner or simply picked up floating debris. Some critics say the Trump administration, which awarded a no-bid contract to install the liner ahead of this year’s July Fourth festivities, rushed and botched the job.

After the arraignment, Hearn’s attorneys escorted him from the courthouse amid repeated chants of “Davey!” by his supporters. A grinning Hearn, wearing a navy suit, adopted a more somber expression as Eisen told the crowd the administration was seeking to “scapegoat” his client.

“It is not a crime to touch the reflecting pool,” Eisen said.

Beyond signs and chants, Hearn’s supporters have also backed his defense.

Allen Mayers, a retired software developer who has known Hearn for the past three decades, said he set up a GoFundMe page to cover his friend’s legal fees. He posted the fundraiser link under videos of Pirro’s news conference detailing the alleged felony.

So far, it has brought in more than $141,000 in donations.