U.S. Olympian David Hearn to be arraigned on charges in Reflecting Pool vandalism case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Olympic canoeist David “Davey” Hearn is set to be arraigned Thursday in connection with alleged damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Hearn will be arraigned in D.C. Superior Court following a grand jury indictment on a single count of destruction of property after he was accused of causing more than $1,000 in damage to the pool.

He is among at least four people facing charges in connection with the alleged tampering of the pool, which President Donald Trump began renovating this spring.

Before court, Hearn’s supporters will rally in his favor.

The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, alleges Hearn was seen “forcefully and violently pulling up and removing the bottom liner” of the pool with both hands June 19. Hearn’s legal team says he is innocent and calls the charges “outrageous.”

Hearn previously told NBC News that he was arrested and detained for five hours last month after he touched a piece of the detached coating in the pool.

The Olympian said he had stopped at the 2,030-foot-long pool during a bike ride “to satisfy my curiosity as a citizen of what was happening with all the algae and the peeling blue coating.”

But Hearn maintained he did not remove, tear or destroy any of the coating.

“The condition of the Reflecting Pool was the same after I stepped away from the water as it was before I got there,” he said.

The pool has been a priority for Trump.

Since April, it has undergone a more than $14 million rehabilitation project — well above the initial cost estimate of under $2 million.

A new liner and coating were added in a color Trump called “American flag blue” for the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations over the July Fourth weekend, but the water instead turned green with algae.

Three others who are accused of taking or attempting to take pieces of blue sealant from the bottom of the pool have been charged with misdemeanor counts of destruction of property in D.C. Superior Court.

Sophie Elaine Dennison-Gibby, Justin Toribio Carreno and Cameron Michael Thiers were each charged with misdemeanor destruction of public property less than $1,000 this month.

They were all arraigned Wednesday and pleaded not guilty.

But, as NBC News reported last month, the material had already been peeling off the bottom of the pool at the time of the arrests.

In one case, an officer allegedly saw someone “pull up a piece of the blue paint.” In another instance, a 26-year-old white male allegedly removed a piece of blue sealant and had it in his hand.

In the other case, an officer with the Montana Department of Corrections said he witnessed a woman remove a piece of reflecting pool paint and that she allegedly had another piece in her purse.

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