A D.C. judge permanently threw out the felony case against former Olympian David Hearn over alleged Reflecting Pool damage, blocking prosecutors from ever refiling the same charge.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman on Thursday dismissed with prejudice the destruction-of-property case against David Hearn, the former Olympic canoeist accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s lining in June.
The ruling ends a monthslong legal fight and bars the Justice Department from bringing the same charge again. Fox News reported that Edelman rejected prosecutors’ bid to keep the door open if new evidence appeared.
Hearn, 67, had been arrested June 19 and later indicted on one felony count. Prosecutors alleged he grabbed and tugged a loose section of the pool’s coating, causing about $1,000 in damage, and kept going after National Park Service employees told him to stop.
The pool sits at the heart of a costly $14 million renovation. That project, and the rush to finish it, became central to why the case collapsed.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro moved in late July to voluntarily dismiss the charges after Department of the Interior evidence surfaced. Court filings described damage tied to a “rushed and botched” installation by contractor Atlantic Industrial Coatings ahead of America 250 celebrations.
Documents said Hearn touched peeling perimeter “overspray” material that was already coming loose and held minimal economic value. Investigative findings were enough, the judge concluded, to show the damage stemmed from a flawed renovation job rather than criminal vandalism by Hearn.
The New York Post reported the lining began peeling almost immediately after the contractor’s work, and that the National Park Service had been alerted to peeling at least 10 days before Hearn’s June 19 encounter with the pool.
In short, the coating was already failing in plain sight. Photos, video, and public reports documented the problems. Hearn’s lawyers argued the government disregarded that evidence and pressed ahead anyway.
Hearn asked for dismissal with prejudice so the government could not restart the case. Edelman agreed. He found the circumstances exceptional and refused to let prosecutors hold a theoretical threat over Hearn’s head.
Edelman wrote that the government had no right to keep the power to compound errors it had already made.
"In the exceptional circumstances posed by this case, the government has no right to retain the ability to compound the errors it has already made, or even to threaten to do so, at Mr. Hearn’s expense. This case must be dismissed with prejudice, and the government must thus be barred from reinstituting this charge against Mr. Hearn."
He also addressed the prosecutors’ hope of future evidence. In his order, Edelman said that possibility was “theoretical at best, and more likely, is simply fanciful,” and noted that although the assigned prosecutors had deemed the case meritless, the president had repeatedly criticized them and pressed for a different course.
That pressure was real. President Donald Trump had criticized Pirro’s move to drop the case, called the decision hastily made, and urged reconsideration. On Truth Social he had insisted the pool was vandalized.
"Anybody who thinks the Reflecting Pool wasn’t vandalized should go back to Law School!"
Trump also pointed to people on their knees with hands in the water at the location of the “slashes,” witnesses to the damage, and flexible material he said was cut with a knife.
The White House later asked the Justice Department to consider a new prosecution path. Fox News Digital sought comment from the White House on the final dismissal.
Hearn’s counsel framed the outcome as overdue accountability for a case that never belonged in criminal court.
"This case never should have been brought in the first place. This was a miscarriage of justice, and what happened to Mr. Hearn is an outrage that should shock every American."
Counsel added that the administration had chosen an unjust prosecution and should not get repeated chances to wield criminal power against someone who should never have faced charges.
AP News reported the defense position in sharper detail: from the outset, evidence showed the liner was already failing and that Hearn did not cause the damage alleged in the indictment. Lawyers wrote that the government indicted him before it obtained or evaluated the information needed for a good-faith basis for the charge.
Hearn was arraigned July 9 at the Moultrie Courthouse in Washington. He walked out with attorney Norman Eisen to speak with reporters that day. The felony count had carried the threat of serious prison time; related reporting noted a possible sentence of up to ten years before the case unraveled.
By the time Pirro sought dismissal, the Justice Department’s own filing undercut the vandalism theory. Breitbart reported the government’s conclusion that damage came from contractor error through overspray in a rush to finish before America 250 events around Independence Day, not from vandals.
A National Park Service engineer tied peeling and delamination to that overspray. Inspections found widespread problems inconsistent with isolated knife cuts. The DOJ filing said it was difficult to attribute the damage to vandalism, let alone prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, and asked that the indictment be dismissed.
Charges against another defendant, Justin Carreno, were also dismissed. Two others, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Cameron Thiers, still faced pending misdemeanor cases at the time of that reporting. Four people total had been charged in connection with the pool.
The sequence is plain. A major public renovation was hurried for anniversary events. The coating failed early and visibly. An Olympian was arrested, indicted, and put through the system. Interior evidence then showed the workmanship problems. Prosecutors moved to drop the case. The judge went further and closed it for good.
Taxpayers funded a $14 million project that began peeling within days. The criminal case that followed rested on a theory the government’s own later evidence could not sustain. Hearn leaves court with the charge permanently barred. The contractor’s rushed installation, and the decision to prosecute before that record was fully weighed, are what the filings and the order now put on the public record.
When a flagship memorial project fails in plain view and a citizen still gets indicted first, the public is right to demand better from the agencies that spent the money and brought the charge.
