Attorneys for former Olympic canoeist David Hearn are challenging the grand jury that indicted him for allegedly damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, arguing the government's own witness undercut the felony charge.
Hearn's defense team filed a motion in D.C. Superior Court on Monday requesting the complete transcript of all closed-door grand jury testimony, along with the legal instructions prosecutors gave jurors about the elements of the crime. The filing alleges "irregularities" in the proceedings, centered on testimony from a National Park Service official who, the defense says, admitted the pool was already falling apart before Hearn ever touched it, the Associated Press reported.
The 67-year-old Bethesda, Maryland, resident, a three-time Olympian whose best finish was ninth in canoe racing at the 1996 Atlanta Games, faces one felony count of property destruction carrying up to 10 years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty and already asked the court to throw out the case, arguing the government failed to preserve key physical evidence from the pool.
The heart of Monday's filing is what the NPS official told the grand jury. Hearn's lawyers say the witness could not quantify how much damage, if any, Hearn actually caused. Worse for prosecutors, the testimony established that the same repairs would have been needed regardless of anything Hearn did.
The defense quoted the filing directly:
"The witness's testimony established that the pool had substantial preexisting damage requiring repair before any alleged conduct by Mr. Hearn."
That matters because the felony charge hinges on Hearn causing at least $1,000 in damage. If the pool was already hemorrhaging water and crumbling at the seams, meeting that threshold becomes a harder sell to a jury, or, the defense argues, it should never have been presented to the grand jury in the first place.
Hearn's attorneys laid out the scope of the pool's existing problems in blunt terms: 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. All of that came from the government's own witness, according to the defense.
The defense acknowledged its arguments rest on a "limited review" of grand jury testimony. The motion asks the court to order prosecutors to hand over the full record so the defense can assess whether the grand jury received an accurate picture of the evidence, or whether jurors were steered toward an indictment the facts could not support.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office did not immediately respond to the AP's request for comment on the filing. But Pirro has been vocal about the case from the start. When the indictment came down earlier this month, she called Hearn's alleged conduct a "deliberate act" and said NPS employees witnessed him "forcefully and violently pulling up and removing the bottom liner with both hands," the New York Post reported.
Pirro also told reporters that a park employee told Hearn to stop and that he responded by shouting at the worker, saying she "cared too much about the Reflecting Pool."
That account clashes sharply with Hearn's version. He told the AP he stopped by the pool during a bike ride on June 19, reached in to examine the pool's newly peeled coating, briefly touched a chunk still attached to the side, and let go when a park worker told him to. He said he was then detained by National Guard troops and U.S. Park Police for five hours.
The gap between those two accounts, one describing a man who ripped up government property and berated a federal employee, the other describing a curious cyclist who complied immediately, is likely to define the trial, now scheduled for September 28 in D.C. Superior Court.
At least three other people have been charged with misdemeanors for allegedly removing pieces of paint from the pool. Hearn is the only one facing a felony. His defense team and supporters have called the prosecution politically motivated, an attempt by the Trump administration to deflect blame for the pool's troubled renovation and scapegoat an ordinary citizen.
Hearn's legal team, which includes Democracy Defenders Fund cofounder Norm Eisen and senior counsel Mary Dohrmann, issued a statement calling the charges "outrageous" and said the indictment reflects the administration's "effort to shift blame for their own failures," Breitbart reported. Dohrmann separately told reporters the government's evidence is weak.
The Reflecting Pool underwent a $14 million rehabilitation project that has been plagued by problems. The pool's new "American Flag Blue" sealant began peeling, algae appeared, and the basin leaked at a staggering rate, all before Hearn's June 19 encounter. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has acknowledged that some of the algae issues were "in the pipes," a concession that complicates the narrative that vandals alone are responsible for the pool's condition.
President Trump addressed the pool's status during a speech Monday at a General Motors facility in Michigan. He described the pool as being "in the hospital now, but it's going to get better very soon" and said it was "almost ready to open." He also characterized the person who cut the liner as "sick."
Pirro has pledged aggressive prosecution of anyone who damages the pool, and the administration has framed the vandalism as a deliberate attack on a national landmark. But Monday's defense filing raises a pointed question: if the government's own expert told grand jurors the pool was already broken, how did the grand jury conclude Hearn caused $1,000 worth of damage?
Grand jury proceedings are secret by default. Defendants rarely get access to the full transcript. Hearn's lawyers are asking the court to order disclosure because they believe the testimony and instructions jurors received may not have supported the charge.
The defense's argument has two prongs. First, the NPS witness's own testimony undercut the damage threshold, the $1,000 minimum, required for a felony. Second, the defense wants to know what legal instructions prosecutors gave the grand jury. If prosecutors failed to explain the elements of the crime clearly, or if they presented the case in a way that glossed over the preexisting damage, the indictment itself could be vulnerable.
Courts grant these requests sparingly. But the defense has a concrete hook: a government witness who, by the defense's account, told the grand jury the pool needed the same repairs whether or not Hearn did anything. That is not the kind of testimony that typically leads to a felony indictment. If the full transcript confirms the defense's reading, Hearn's lawyers will have strong ammunition for their pending motion to dismiss.
Hearn, who competed in three Summer Olympics and represented the United States at the highest level of international sport, now faces the prospect of a felony trial over what he says was a moment of curiosity at a crumbling public pool. His supporters see a man being made an example of. Prosecutors see someone who damaged a national monument and then lied about it. Fox News reported that the June 19 arrest went viral after being captured on video, adding a public dimension to a case that was already politically charged.
The court has not yet ruled on either the motion to dismiss or the new request for grand jury materials. Both rulings could reshape the case before it ever reaches a jury in September.
When the government's own witness says the pool was already leaking a million gallons a week and falling apart at the seams, charging a 67-year-old cyclist with a felony starts to look less like accountability and more like convenience.