Judge in D.C. May Block Second Prosecution of Olympian in Lincoln Memorial Vandalism Case

A judge in Washington, D.C. appears prepared to block Donald Trump’s administration and prosecutors from charging a former Olympian a second time for damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office had agreed to drop felony charges against 67-year-old David Hearn, who was accused of vandalizing the monument after recently applied blue liner started to flap to the surface. But she wanted to leave open the possibility of prosecuting Hearn again.

Hearn asked a judge to dismiss the case with prejudice, which would prevent prosecutors from reviving felony charges against him for the same alleged crime. His legal team called the prospect of a new case against him “prosecutorial harassment.”

D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman hauled lawyers to court on Friday to hear why prosecutors would want to revive charges against Hearn after admitting that they couldn’t prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

“It’s not about me. This is about defending democracy,” Hearn said outside the courthouse on Friday.

Edelman pressed the Department of Justice on what kind of prosecution Hearn could face in the future, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Spence said an answer would only be “speculation,” according to AllRiseNews.

Hearn is not currently under investigation, according to Spence. But “10 minutes from now that decision could change,” he said.

Trump, meanwhile, has publicly demanded Pirro “revisit her hastily made decision” while accusing her of having “folded like an umbrella” by agreeing to drop the case.

“I think she choked,” he said from the Oval Office last month.

“How am I to look at these statements as anything other than the chief executive urging your office to pursue a prosecution that your office has determined is meritless?” Edelman asked in court.

Spence said the president’s remarks “speak for themselves.”

If someone like Hearn can be charged for a crime they didn’t commit, “then every American is at risk,” attorney Norm Eisen told reporters outside the courthouse.

“Davey Hearn is innocent. He's got nothing to do with the toxic contamination of the reflecting pool and the algae farm that is growing in it,” Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin told reporters. “That is a problem with the Trump administration. They should deal with it without bringing my constituent into it.”

Weeks after she publicly accused Hearn of “forcefully and violently” ripping out the Reflecting Pool’s Trump-requested blue liner, Pirro filed a stunning motion to dismiss the case entirely — outraging Trump, who has spent weeks demanding prosecutors target alleged vandals despite his own administration admitting that the damage was caused by contractors.

Pirro’s office admitted that the Trump-requested “American flag blue” sealant started to peel “almost immediately” after the work was completed after recent renovations to the site this summer. Contractors left behind “widespread damage,” according to her office.

The Department of Interior “provided less than fulsome information at the outset of this case,” Pirro wrote. It was not until after the indictment was filed that the agency determined that the “damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism,” according to her filing.

Last month, however, Pirro’s office argued that other evidence could materialize, adding that “the mere potential that charges may be re-brought does not constitute the type of harassment for which dismissal with prejudice is appropriate.”

“Should the case be re-presented to a grand jury based on newly discovered evidence, any re-indictment of the case would not constitute harassment,” her office wrote in court filings. “Should the case be re-presented, the grand-jury process provides extensive protection to the defendant.

The legal team behind Hearn — a champion canoeist who represented the U.S. at the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Summer Olympics — has argued that Trump’s comments suggest the administration could try to charge him again without a judge’s intervention.

“From day one, the case against Mr. Hearn was motivated by political considerations and devoid of adequate factual support,” lawyers wrote August 4. “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.”

The case record demonstrates a “substantial and specific risk that, if the indictment is dismissed without prejudice, Mr. Hearn will face renewed charges, however meritless, driven by political pressure rather than the evidence,” they added.