Olympian David Hearn pleads not guilty to Reflecting Pool vandalism charges

U.S. Olympic canoeist David "Davey" Hearn pleaded not guilty in court on Thursday to charges of causing alleged damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The Trump administration spent millions of dollars to renovate the reflecting pool, only for it to be ridden with algae within days. President Donald Trump has alleged that vandals swam to the bottom of the pool and sliced the lining, contaminating the water. Hearn was arrested in June on charges of vandalism.

The Olympian was arraigned in D.C. Superior Court after a grand jury indictment on a single count of destruction of property, allegedly causing $1,000 worth of damage to the reflecting pool, as per NBC News. The next hearing has been set for August 5. The report states that Hearn nodded his head and remained stoic as the charges were being read in a packed courtroom. He is among four people facing charges for alleged damage to the reflecting pool.

Last month, Hearn said that he was arrested and detained for five hours after he touched a piece of detached paint coating in the pool. He said that he was there "to satisfy my curiosity as a citizen of what was happening with all the algae and the peeling blue coating." The pool had been painted "American flag blue" as per President Trump; there were reports of the coating peeling off before the Trump administration alleged vandalism.

"The condition of the Reflecting Pool was the same after I stepped away from the water as it was before I got there," Hearn said. Members of President Trump's cabinet have been adamant that it was the Olympian who was involved in damaging the pool. US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said that the National Park Service employees witnessed Hearn "forcefully and violently pulling up and removing the bottom liner with both hands."

A guilty verdict could lead to a 10-year prison sentence. However, those in support of the Olympian claimed that the pool was damaged from the start. "I would have touched the paint myself because to feel the texture of it, you can kind of determine what maybe went wrong," said Paul Flack, another former Olympic canoeist who competed with Hearn. "It's a $14 million project that went totally wrong, and him touching the paint had absolutely nothing to do with it."

According to The Hill, Hearn's attorneys, Norm Eisen and Mary Dohrmann, claimed that federal prosecutors were attempting to "provide political cover" for the Trump administration for a failed renovation project.