A D.C. judge on Thursday permanently threw out the Reflecting Pool case against former Olympian David Hearn, ruling that Trump’s repeated pressure on prosecutors created a real risk the government would try to charge Hearn again for damage it had already admitted he did not cause.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman dismissed the case “with prejudice,” which means it is closed for good and prosecutors can never refile the charge. When a case is dismissed without prejudice, the government can come back later and try again. In a 26 page order, Edelman said this case had exceptional circumstances that called for shutting that door completely.
Hearn is a 67 year old canoeist from Bethesda, Maryland, who competed in three Summer Olympics, with his best finish coming at the 1996 Atlanta Games, where he placed ninth. He says that on June 19, while out on a bike ride, he reached in to look at the pool’s newly peeling coating and briefly touched a chunk stuck to the side. He let go when a park worker told him to. Prosecutors charged him with one felony count of property destruction, which carries up to 10 years in prison.
The Reflecting Pool case started falling apart in July. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, whom Trump appointed as D.C.’s top federal prosecutor, dropped the charge on July 31. In a court filing, her office said new evidence from the Interior Department showed Hearn was not responsible for the damage to the pool’s lining. Her office blamed a contractor’s botched installation and a rush to finish the renovation in time for this summer’s America 250 celebration in Washington.
Trump did not accept that. He said Pirro “choked” and “folded like an umbrella,” and he has kept claiming the pool was vandalized. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has backed Trump’s claim.
That pressure is why Edelman went further than a normal dismissal. He wrote that even though the prosecutors on the case had decided it had no merit, Trump had repeatedly disparaged them and pressured them to change course. He said the government had shot first and asked questions later by rushing to indict Hearn, and he called the idea that new evidence might someday support a prosecution theoretical at best and more likely fanciful. Leaving the case open, he found, would put Hearn in an acutely vulnerable position.
Edelman was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama. Pirro is a former Fox News host.
Hearn’s lawyers called the ruling a victory for the rule of law and for an innocent American seeking justice, and said it lets him move forward with his life. “This administration chose to pursue an unjust prosecution against Mr. Hearn. It should not get repeated chances to wield the power of criminal prosecution against someone who should never have been prosecuted,” they said in a statement.
