David Hearn Attorneys Seek Reflecting Pool Vandalism Dismissal

Lawyers for David Hearn, the former Olympian accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, asked D.C. Superior Court to throw out the indictment permanently, arguing that “exceptional facts and circumstances” justify a dismissal with prejudice.  

The request comes after the Justice Department moved last week to drop the criminal case against Hearn, acknowledging that the damage to the reflecting pool “was the result of flawed installation by the contractor.”

Hearn’s filing responds to a Friday motion from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, whose office sought to dismiss the case without prejudice — a step that would end the current prosecution but could still allow the government to bring the charge again later. 

By contrast, a dismissal with prejudice would shut the door on any future attempt to prosecute Hearn over the same alleged conduct.   

“Here, amid extraordinary political pressure and public pronouncements from President Trump demanding action, and in apparent disregard for their special duties as prosecutors, USAO-DC rushed to obtain a public felony indictment,” Hearn’s attorneys wrote, referring to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

The defense filing further argued that prosecutors moved too quickly. “Defying both decency and common sense, the government proceeded to indict Mr. Hearn before it had obtained or evaluated the information necessary to establish a good-faith basis for the charge,” it said. 

Hearn’s legal team urged the court to bring the matter to a definitive close, stating, “The Court should not leave the defendant subject to the possibility of renewed prosecution.”

Hearn pleaded not guilty last month to a felony destruction of property charge after Pirro’s office alleged he had “forcefully and violently” torn up sections of the reflecting pool floor.

Citing President Donald Trump’s comments on the matter in recent days, the attorneys representing Hearns added, “That is particularly true when the President of the United States has already voiced his vigorous disagreement with USAO-DC’s dismissal of the case against Mr. Hearn — saying that the U.S. Attorney “choked,” “folded like an umbrella,” and “made a mistake,” and doubling down on the false claim that the damage was caused by vandalism — and has previously not hesitated to insinuate himself into cases that historically have been the exclusive province of the DOJ.”

Should the court deny the motion to dismiss the indictment with prejudice, Hearn’s attorneys asked the court to disclose grand jury materials or to conduct a review in chambers of those materials before granting the government’s motion to dismiss the case without prejudice.