Attorneys for the former Olympic canoeist the Trump administration had charged in a felony Reflecting Pool case are seeking to permanently bar any effort to resurface what they called a “politically motivated prosecution” of their client.
The case against David “Davey” Hearn was “motivated by political considerations and devoid of adequate factual support,” his attorneys said in a filing Tuesday, adding that the Justice Department “has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to seek or reinstate criminal charges to satisfy the President, irrespective of the law or facts.”
The “sprint to charge” Hearn, they wrote, “mirrored the expedited timeline to complete the Pool renovations” that led to the damage in the first place.
Hearn had been on a bike ride in June and stopped by the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, where he was arrested after he allegedly touched material that the Trump administration had recently installed on the pool bottom. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro told reporters last month that her office could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hearn had caused at least $1,000 in damage to the Reflecting Pool, and her office convinced grand jurors to indict Hearn on a felony charge.
But on Friday, Pirro’s team moved to dismiss the case against Hearn, admitting that internal Interior Department documents demonstrated that there had been extensive damage that was the result of a rushed and “botched” installation process. Pirro’s team also moved to dismiss misdemeanor cases brought against three others in connection with incidents at the Reflecting Pool.
President Donald Trump wasn’t pleased. He told reporters on Monday that Pirro “choked” and “folded like an umbrella” and claimed that she’s been facing a hostile judge, even though no judge had taken any substantive action in the case. Hours later, Pirro visited the White House, bringing with her an evidence box.
A key witness who testified before the grand jury hadn’t initially been able to show that Hearn caused at least $1,000 in damage. But the witness was later recalled and then claimed that the additional damage that Pirro’s office ascribed to Hearn would cost more than $1,000 to fix, which would have supported a felony charge.
Pirro’s office moved to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning they could theoretically bring the case again. Hearn’s team wanted the case dismissed with prejudice, which would mean Pirro’s team would be banned from bringing a case against Hearn in connection with the incident.
“By moving to dismiss, the U.S. Attorney’s Office did the right thing,” said attorney Steve Levin, one of the lawyers representing Hearn. “But as our response makes clear, it did so the wrong way.”
Hearn’s filing revealed that a National Park Service engineer even told federal investigators that “he had personally cut loose liner or coating with a knife” to prevent the peeling from worsening.
“The government’s own engineer determined that it was better to cut off the peeling sections than to let them flap around,” Hearn’s attorneys wrote.
In its filing, Hearn’s team said the “exceptional facts and circumstances” warranted a dismissal with prejudice.
“Defying both decency and common sense, the government proceeded to indict Mr. Hearn before it had obtained or evaluated the information necessary to establish a good-faith basis for the charge,” they wrote.
Hearn’s team also said Pirro “held an unprofessional and unethical press conference in which she wholly disregarded DC Bar and DOJ ethics rules by discussing the purported evidence, bolstering the credibility of potential witnesses, and wrongly opining” on Hearn’s guilt.
The case is still active in D.C. Superior Court, and a judge has not ruled on whether to permanently bar Pirro’s office from bringing a new case against Hearn. A hearing that had been set for Thursday has been cancelled.
