Ex-Olympian weighing ‘all options’ after reflecting pool charges dropped

An attorney for the former Olympic canoeist who was charged with vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool has said that “all options are on table” for legal recourse after prosecutors recently abandoned the case abruptly.

David Hearn “has a number of potential remedies” after being prosecuted in connection with pool damage now attributed to faulty work by a contractor, attorney Steven Levin said in a statement. Levin added that those could include “civil suits, bar referrals for the prosecutors involved, request for sanctions and reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and expenses”, and requests for investigations by various government entities, including Congress.

Hearn, 67, was arrested on 19 June and faced one felony count of property destruction – a charge that could have resulted in a 10-year prison sentence and a $1,000 fine – which he denied.

The charge came after Donald Trump’s administration spent $14m to change the reflecting pool’s color. A new pool liner almost immediately began to peel off, and the president blamed vandals. Four people were arrested, but only Hearn was charged with a felony.

On Friday, Trump’s justice department moved to dismiss the charge against Hearn, saying in a filing that the damage to the pool liner was “the result of flawed installation by the contractor” who worked on it.

In a 20-page court filing in Washington DC superior court on Friday, prosecutors said they had received information about a “rush to complete the project” prior to events associated with the celebration of the US’s semiquincentennial on Fourth of July.

Washington DC’s US attorney, Jeanine Pirro, said that her office – which handles cases in the city’s superior court – had received key documents from the federal department of the interior after the indictment was filed. Those documents “indicated a rushed and flawed installation process, with repeated failures of the lining during the installation process, and extensive peeling of the lining throughout the reflecting pool,” Pirro wrote in Friday’s court filing.

The resulting decision to drop the charge against Hearn set off a dispute within Trump’s administration. The president said Pirro had “choked” and “folded like an umbrella” leading to speculation that she might be fired from her post. Trump has continued to blame vandalism for problems with the pool makeover.

On Monday, the president ducked questions about Pirro’s charge dismissal but maintained his criticism of her, saying “I disagree 100% with [her]”. Pirro was spotted at the White House hours after Trump’s comments on Monday.

Attorneys for Hearn have previously said the government “owes Mr Hearn an apology”.

“The Trump administration’s case against Davey Hearn should have never been brought,” his attorneys, including Levin, said on social media. “Its dismissal … does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong.”

Hearn told the Associated Press that he had been detained by the national guard and US park police for five hours after stopping by the reflecting pool during a bike ride. He acknowledged that he briefly touched a part on the liner attached to the side and told NBC News the pool’s condition “was the same after I stepped away from the water as it was before I got there”.

Lawyers for Hearn have also called on prosecutors to disclose the legal instructions they gave to grand jurors about the elements of the criminal charge handed up against him.

“The grand jury transcripts disclosed to the defense thus far contain other irregularities that reflect a misleading presentation to the grand jury and a need for review of the entire grand jury record in this matter,” Hearn’s attorneys wrote.

Hearn’s opportunities for legal recourse against the federal government may come only after his attorneys petition the court to dismiss the case “with prejudice”, meaning that it could not be refiled. The justice department dropped the charge “without prejudice”, meaning that it can be refiled.

“We are responding with our own motion to dismiss with prejudice so that he is not longer at risk of being harassed by the government further,” Levin said on Tuesday. “Once that is resolved Mr Hearn will focus on what comes next.

“He’s considering all options.”

In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, Hearn’s attorney Norm Eisen said the team plan to go on the offensive against the government: “All legal remedies are on the table going forward to respond to the miscarriage of justice,” Eisen said.