David Hearn pleaded not guilty Thursday in D.C. Superior Court to a felony charge tied to alleged damage at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, putting him on a collision course with prosecutors who say the case centers on a 2 square foot section of the landmark’s lining. Judge Carmen McLean ordered him released on his own recognizance and set the next status hearing for Wednesday, Aug. 5.
Hearn sat between his attorneys, Steven Levin and Mary Dohrmann, in a packed courtroom while Dohrmann entered the plea on his behalf. The hearing ended after only 13 minutes, but it marked the first time the former U.S. Olympian had been required to answer to the July 2 indictment that accuses him of maliciously destroying part of the Reflecting Pool.
The charge carries up to 10 years in prison, a penalty that gives the case more weight than the small patch of damaged lining might suggest. Federal prosecutors say the harm was serious enough to justify the felony count, while three other individuals were charged separately after allegedly removing pieces of blue paint from the site. Cameron Thiers, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Justin Carreno all appeared in court Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor destruction of property.
That divide is at the center of the dispute. Norm Eisen said Hearn is being used as a scapegoat for the administration’s failures on one of Donald Trump’s Washington beautification projects, arguing that the former Olympian is innocent and that the government is trying to shift blame. Prosecutors, by contrast, have charged Hearn with damaging the pool’s lining, while Donald Trump blamed vandals without providing evidence after the Reflecting Pool turned green and pieces of the liner began bubbling up to the surface following last month’s painting.
That sequence matters because it leaves the court with a narrow legal question and a broader political one. If the government proves the damage amounted to the felony it alleges, Hearn faces a serious prison exposure; if the defense can show the case is overstated, the July 2 indictment could become a warning shot about how quickly a public blame game turned into criminal charges. For now, the next date that matters is Aug. 5, when McLean will bring the case back to Superior Court.
