{"id":553967,"date":"2026-08-01T01:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T01:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/553967\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T01:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T01:46:12","slug":"case-dropped-against-us-ex-olympian-charged-with-damaging-reflecting-pool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/553967\/","title":{"rendered":"Case dropped against US ex-Olympian charged with damaging Reflecting Pool"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US Justice Department moved Friday (local time) to dismiss a criminal case charging a former Olympian with deliberately damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.<\/a><\/p>\n

Government lawyers said in a 20-page court filing that information provided since the indictment of David Hearn shows that the damage was the result of a \u201cflawed installation by the contractor\u201d as well as \u201cthe rush to complete the project<\/a> prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026″. <\/p>\n

\u201cGiven all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt,\u201d said the filing from US Attorney Jeanine Pirro.<\/p>\n

Hearn’s lawyers said in a statement that the case against him should never have been brought.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong. The government\u2019s approach was ready, fire, aim. The administration owes Mr. Hearn an apology,\u201d the lawyers said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A man on a bike passes security fencing along the edge of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool ahead of America 250 July 4th celebration on the National Mall (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Hearn pleaded not guilty<\/a> last month to one felony count of property destruction and has a trial scheduled to start September 28 in DC Superior Court. The charge, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years upon conviction, accuses Hearn of causing at least US$1000 (NZ$1700) in damage to the pool.<\/p>\n

Hearn told The Associated Press he was detained by National Guard troops and US Park Police for five hours after stopping by the pool during a bike ride on June 19. He said he reached in to examine the pool\u2019s newly peeled coating and briefly touched a chunk attached to the side of the pool, but said he obeyed a park worker who told him to let go of it.<\/p>\n

Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Maryland, competed in three Summer Olympics, earning his best finish, ninth, at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee says on its website.<\/p>\n

He and his supporters have said the prosecution is a politically motivated attempt by the Trump administration to deflect blame and scapegoat others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US Justice Department moved Friday (local time) to dismiss a criminal case charging a former Olympian with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,64,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-553967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}