What began as a federal criminal case against a former Olympic athlete is now collapsing for a remarkably simple reason: The damage prosecutors initially blamed on him was caused by faulty work.
Washington, D.C., U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro is moving to dismiss the charges against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn after a new court filing revealed that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was actually the “result of flawed installation by the contractor.”
Hearn had pleaded not guilty earlier this month to one felony count of destruction of property stemming from an alleged June 19 incident. But Friday’s filing from Pirro’s office paints a very different picture of what happened.
According to the filing, the sealant installed at the bottom of the iconic Reflecting Pool began peeling “[a]lmost immediately” after the renovation work was completed.
That detail changes everything.
The federal government had been pursuing a felony case against Hearn over damage that prosecutors now acknowledge was tied to the quality of the renovation itself. The contractor, a Virginia-based company, had received a no-bid contract for the work.
Pirro’s office filed the motion to dismiss Friday, effectively putting an end to the prosecution as the government’s own findings undercut the original case.
And that should raise an obvious question: How did damage caused by a flawed installation become a felony case against a citizen in the first place?
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is one of the most recognizable landmarks in the nation, so protecting it matters. But protecting a national monument does not mean rushing to criminalize someone when the evidence points elsewhere.
Hearn, a former Olympic canoeist, had faced the possibility of serious federal consequences over an incident that prosecutors now say was connected to defective installation work.
The latest filing is therefore more than a procedural development. It is a reminder that the power of the federal government must be exercised carefully—and that accusations should never outrun the facts.
In this case, the facts ultimately led prosecutors in another direction.
The contractor’s work had apparently begun failing almost immediately. The government now says that flawed installation caused the damage.
And just like that, the felony case disappears.
For Hearn, the dismissal should bring an end to a prosecution that never should have survived once the underlying cause of the damage became clear. For everyone else, the episode offers a basic lesson that should not require a court filing to establish: get the facts first, then bring the charges.
But after Fauci's hearing and his total lack of sense of accountability, it is good to know this administration is willing to admit they were wrong, so they can learn and make corrections.
