A judge in Washington, D.C., agreed Thursday to permanently dismiss the criminal case against former Olympian David Hearn over alleged vandalism of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — a ruling that bars federal prosecutors from ever reviving the politically charged prosecution.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman ordered the case dismissed "with prejudice," the strongest form of dismissal, which permanently blocks U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro's office from refiling the felony property-destruction charge against Hearn. The judge issued the order nearly a month after hearing arguments from both sides.
Hearn, a Maryland resident and former Olympic canoeist, had been charged with one count of property destruction carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Pirro's office moved to dismiss the indictment on July 31, after new evidence from the Interior Department showed Hearn was not responsible for damage to the pool's lining. In the filing, Pirro said the Justice Department had based its indictment on "less than fulsome information" from Interior, and attributed the damage instead to a botched installation by a contractor rushing to finish renovations ahead of the summer's America 250 celebration in Washington.
But that dismissal left the door open: prosecutors could theoretically have brought the charges again. Hearn's lawyers asked the court to shut it permanently, pointing to President Donald Trump's public criticism of Pirro for dropping the case and his demand that she reinstitute it. Trump's pressure, they argued, showed the department's "willingness to seek or reinstate criminal charges to satisfy the President, irrespective of the law or facts."
The White House took the July dismissal as an embarrassment. Trump said Pirro had "choked" and "folded like an umbrella." Interior Secretary Doug Burgum backed Trump's claims that vandals had damaged the pool, even as Pirro's own filing said no crime had occurred.
Edelman quoted the pattern directly: "Although the prosecutors assigned to this case have deemed it meritless, the President of the United States has repeatedly disparaged them and pressured them to change course," he wrote. He noted Trump had publicly entertained firing Pirro over the decision.
Edelman's order is unusually blunt about the merits. The prosecution, he wrote, concluded the case "lacked merit" not because it had misidentified Hearn, but because "no crime had occurred": the damage to the pool was caused by the contractor's "rushed and botched" installation of the lining during renovations, and "Mr. Hearn's actions had no effect on the value of the pool."
Hearn has said he was on a bike ride on June 19 when he noticed the pool's newly applied coating peeling, reached in to examine a chunk attached to the side, and let go when a park worker told him to. His lawyers had questioned whether prosecutors properly presented the grand jury with adequate evidence to support the charge and the alleged damage amount.
Edelman said the case presents "exceptional circumstances" warranting permanent dismissal, agreeing with defense lawyers that the government "shot first and asked questions later" in "a lightning-fast indictment process."
"While the government wishes to hold open the possibility of the development of evidence that would support a future prosecution, its own representations make plain that such a possibility is theoretical at best, and more likely, is simply fanciful," the judge wrote.
He added that permanently dismissing the case protects Hearn from the prospect that prosecutors, under political pressure from Trump, would revive a case they themselves deemed meritless. "Mr. Hearn faces the unique possibility that the government will revive this case — one that it has already announced to be meritless — based on political pressure brought by the President of the United States upon his subordinate officers," Edelman wrote.
Hearn's attorneys called the decision "a victory for the rule of law," saying the case should never have been brought. Pirro's office has not commented on the order.
For the Justice Department, the ruling closes a bruising chapter: career prosecutors dropped a case on the evidence, only to face public demands from the president to reinstate it. With the dismissal now "with prejudice," the federal government cannot prosecute Hearn again over the Reflecting Pool unless it can allege entirely new and different facts.