A Washington, D.C., judge has scheduled a September 28 trial for a former Olympic canoe racer accused of intentionally damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — a renovation project backed by President Donald Trump that has been mired in controversy.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman set the trial date for David Hearn during a Monday court hearing. It marked Hearn’s second appearance before the court since a grand jury handed down a felony property destruction charge against him.
Hearn entered a not guilty plea on July 9 and has since asked the court to throw out the case entirely. His legal team argued in a court filing that the government failed to properly preserve key physical evidence from the Reflecting Pool.
Three other individuals have also faced charges in the same court — misdemeanors — for allegedly taking pieces of paint from the pool. The felony count against Hearn, which alleges he caused at least $1,000 in damage, could carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years if he is convicted.
President Trump ordered the pool renovated ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations, but the project has been plagued by setbacks. What Trump initially said would cost $1.5 million has since ballooned to more than $16 million.
Trump, a Republican, has pointed to vandalism as the cause of the pool’s problems, while critics of the administration blame poor repair work. Hearn and those who support him contend that his prosecution is politically driven — an effort by the Trump administration to shift blame onto him and others for its own shortcomings.
Workers recently drained the pool again, which prompted Hearn’s attorneys to argue the government is actively destroying evidence that could prove his innocence.
“The Constitution simply does not permit the government to charge a man with destroying an object, retain exclusive custody of that object, and then drain, disturb, and alter the object before the defense may examine it, despite a written demand for its preservation. And yet that is what has happened here,” his attorneys wrote in their motion to dismiss.
Hearn, 67, previously told The Associated Press that National Guard soldiers and U.S. Park Police held him for five hours after he stopped at the pool during a bike ride on June 19. He said he reached in to look at the pool’s peeling coating and briefly touched a piece still attached to the wall, but that he released it when a park worker told him to do so.
Hearn, a Bethesda, Maryland, resident, competed in three Summer Olympics. According to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s website, his best result was a ninth-place finish at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
