The former Olympic athlete who was arrested after reaching into the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has now been indicted, after President Trump blamed vandalism for the National Mall landmark's problems. David Hearn, a three-time US Olympic canoeist, was indicted Thursday in DC Superior Court on a felony charge of destruction of property, NBC News reports. Hearn, 67, has said he was taken into custody on June 19 after touching a loose chunk of coating in the water during a pause on a bike ride to check out the pool's algae and peeling blue liner. "I didn't vandalize anything," he said. Conviction could bring up to 10 years in prison, per the Washington Post.
District of Columbia US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Hearn ripped up recently installed sealant on pool in "a deliberate act" that caused $1,000 in damage, per the AP. She accused him of "forcefully and violently" pulling up bottom liner "with both hands" and acting belligerently toward an employee who told him to stop. "This is a case with tremendous evidence," she said. Hearn has told NBC that "the condition of the Reflecting Pool was the same after I stepped away … as it was before I got there," insisting he did not remove anything or cause damage. The National Park Service has said that parts of the pool's liner were cut with a sharp blade on June 9. Several people have been arrested since Trump made claims without providing evidence that vandals wrecked the pool.
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