U.S. Olympian David Hearn pleads not guilty in Reflecting Pool vandalism case

WASHINGTON — U.S. Olympic canoeist David “Davey” Hearn pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Thursday in connection with allegations of damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Hearn was arraigned in D.C. Superior Court following a grand jury indictment on a single count of destruction of property after he was accused of causing more than $1,000 in damage to the pool. Superior Court Judge Carmen McLean released Hearn on his own recognizance. His next hearing will be Aug. 5. Norm Eisen, one of Hearn’s attorneys, spoke to reporters outside court Thursday following the hearing. “Every American is at risk, and every American should be alarmed by this prosecution,” Eisen said, adding: “Mr. Hearn is innocent.” “It is not a crime to touch the Reflecting Pool, to touch water in the United States of America,” he said. “This is a case that should never have been brought.” A chorus of “Davey! Davey!” echoed around the courthouse after Eisen addressed the public. The Washington courtroom reached maximum seating capacity before the hearing. Additional people were instructed to watch from overflow seating rooms elsewhere in the courthouse. Hearn nodded when the clerk read him his charges and appeared stoic. He later conferred and whispered with his lawyers when he was offered several options for the next status hearing date. Before court, Hearn’s supporters rallied in his favor. Supporters walked in circles outside court in protest of Hearn’s charges. Multiple attendees carried signs that said “The Deflection Pool.” He is among at least four people charged in connection with the allegations of tampering with the pool, which President Donald Trump began renovating this spring. The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, alleges Hearn was seen “forcefully and violently pulling up and removing the bottom liner” of the pool with both hands on June 19. Hearn’s legal team says he is innocent and calls the charges “outrageous.” Hearn previously told NBC News that he was arrested and detained for five hours last month after he touched a piece of the detached coating in the pool. The Olympian said he had stopped at the 2,030-foot-long pool during a bike ride “to satisfy my curiosity as a citizen of what was happening with all the algae and the peeling blue coating.” But Hearn maintained he did not remove, tear or destroy any of the coating. “The condition of the Reflecting Pool was the same after I stepped away from the water as it was before I got there,” he said. The pool has been a priority for Trump. Since April, it has undergone a more than $14 million rehabilitation project — well above the initial cost estimate of under $2 million. A new liner and coating were added in a color Trump called “American flag blue” for the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations over the July Fourth weekend, but the water turned green with algae instead. Three others accused of taking or attempting to take pieces of blue sealant from the bottom of the pool have been charged with misdemeanor destruction of property in D.C. Superior Court. Sophie Elaine Dennison-Gibby, Justin Toribio Carreno and Cameron Michael Thiers were each charged with misdemeanor destruction of public property valued at less than $1,000 this month. They were all arraigned Wednesday and pleaded not guilty. But, as NBC News reported last month, the material had already been peeling off the bottom of the pool at the time of the arrests. In one case, an officer is alleged to have seen someone “pull up a piece of the blue paint.” In another instance, a 26-year-old white man is alleged to have removed a piece of blue sealant and had it in his hand. In the other case, an officer with the Montana Department of Corrections said he witnessed a woman remove a piece of Reflecting Pool paint and alleged that she had another piece in her purse. Outside the court on Thursday, Paul Flack, a former U.S. National Team canoeist, said he has known Hearn since 1978, when they competed together. “I would have touched the paint myself, because to feel the texture of it, you can kind of determine what maybe went wrong,” Flack said. “It’s a $14 million project that went totally wrong, and him touching the paint had absolutely nothing to do with it.” Abigail Endicott said she has known Hearn since he was a teenager, as her husband used to coach him. “Davey Hearn loves the Reflecting Pool,” Endicott said. “He would never want to do anything to hurt it. So I’m here because we want him to be free of this.” Nina Bang-Jensen, who also showed up outside court in Washington on Thursday morning, said, “I’m really distressed just by the way the rule of law is being ignored in the United States.” She added: “Felony prosecution for something like this is absurd. This is just trying to hide their own incompetence by leaving the blame on American citizens.”