3-time Olympian pleads not guilty in Reflecting Pool damage case

Alicia said, OK. Hi, everybody. Happy 4th of July almost. I am here today with Michael Spence from my office along with Jeff Wojk, both of them, uh, part of the, uh, uh, Superior Court division of my office, along with Damon Hagen, who is the solicitor for the Department of Interior and Deputy Chief David Lamond from the, uh, uh, Department of Parks, uh, from, from the, uh, Parks Police Department. Uh, did I get, yeah, and, uh. Today I thought it was important to call this press conference because one of the most offensive images that I hold in my mind are the images of national monuments that are being defaced, roped, torn down, graffitied, and damaged by individuals. I have *** vivid memory. This happening several years ago and over time where our national monuments and statues are being torn down and this is not the way of *** civilized society it is anarchy and. Our nation has weathered moments of anarchy and chaos in the past, and individuals have made *** decision, many of them, to destroy and to damage national monuments, not taking into account the fact that the rest of the nation considers these monuments important and necessary to our history. But this unchecked vandalism and civil disorder turns into criminal behavior, and that’s why we’re here today. They are an affront to the dignity of our shared history, and we will not allow our sacred monuments to be roped off, defaced, or diminished or in any way impacted by disgruntled individuals who think that they, and not the rest of the nation, have the right to decide what should happen. These landmarks and monuments belong to all of us, and they must be protected for generations to come. And the president, when he came here in his executive order to make DC safe and beautiful, brought in *** fresh injection of resources both for my office and for all of law enforcement to make DC safe. And the other part of that executive order was to make DC beautiful and as part of that in anticipation of the celebration of 250 years of American history. The president, as you heard from him, has been able to improve and to clean up 50 parks, more than 48 monuments that have been repaired, 22 fountains have been returned to service, and these monuments and fountains must be protected, and those who decide that they want to do harm will be held accountable. Just as they have been held accountable in the criminal justice system in so many of the press conferences that you have been in this room to witness, DC has experienced *** renaissance like it has never experienced before in both safety and in beauty. Today is about accountability for damaging *** national resource, *** national treasure, and that is the reflecting pool that runs from the Washington Monument to the, uh, Lincoln Memorial, which is of course *** symbol of DC’s uh beauty and history. Now it was recently renovated with significant funds and investments. Any tampering undermines that. And make no mistake, if anyone decides they want to damage that whatever they think their reason is or whether they think it’s justified or whether they think it’s not important will be held to account. This is *** priority not only for the president but for myself as well, so. Today *** grand jury has returned *** felony indictment against *** defendant, David Hearn, for felony destruction of property for which he faces 10 years in prison. The indictment is in response to an incident that occurred on June 19th, 2026 in which the defendant Hearne ripped *** piece of recently installed sealant on the bottom of the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial. The evidence shows, and we will prove beyond *** reasonable doubt, that Hearne willfully destroyed property at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. This was *** deliberate act to damage the reflecting pool at the National Mall that members of the National Park Service actually have worked hard to restore and have witnessed. By Hearn’s own admission, on June 19th, he reached down into the pool. Our evidence further shows that the National Park Service employees observed Hearn actually forcefully and violently pulling up and removing the bottom liner with both hands. According to witnesses, Hearn damaged approximately 2 square feet of sealant from the bottom of the pool. *** parks employee actually told Hearne to stop, to stop his behavior and stop what he was doing. Hearne reacted by shouting at that Parkes employee, saying that she cared too much about the reflecting pool, and why did she even care since it wasn’t her pool. Now, Mr. Hearn’s behavior was characterized by witnesses as belligerent, rude, and disrespectful, according to National Park Service employees that witnessed the event. And let me talk *** moment about those employees. Many of those employees have come from around the country because they are proud of this nation. They are proud of the 250th anniversary that we are about to experience. Many of them have decided to step away from their desks and to go outside and actually work next to the pool to witness what was going on as opposed to staying in *** cool office. These are the witnesses that we’re talking about in this case. These are the people who care about this particular monument and what is going on. They work long hours and they are tireless in their efforts, and they must be shown respect and not be treated with belligerence and with disrespect by those who seek to damage the very monuments that they are there to protect, and they certainly should not have to witness the damage done right in front of their faces. The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia remains committed to protecting our national resources, our monuments, and our parks from vandals, and we are especially committed to doing so in advance of our 250th anniversary. Now, uh, I don’t know if do you wanna add anything to this, Deputy Chief, Deputy Chief Lamont from the, uh, Park Police. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Deputy Chief David Lamont, and I am the Field Operations Division commander for US Park Police. US Park Police’s mission is to support the mission of the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior and to safeguard lives and to protect cultural resources. We understand this summer there are *** lot of events for America’s 250th birthday, and the US Park Police will be very visible downtown. Our job out there is to keep people safe, and we encourage people to come down and enjoy the parks. That being said, if anybody does come down to the parks, commits any acts of violence, or commits any other acts such as vandalism, we will hold them accountable and they will either be cited or arrested. OK, questions. Was this part of the pool, you know, there had been some damage before. Was, was this part of the pool specifically? Did some of the, the, was the, uh, sealant already partially removed? Did he rip it back and you just described in detail because he maintains that it looks the same as it did before he arrived. That’s his. You know, I’m not gonna get into the evidence, but what I told you is what our witnesses saw and experienced. There was an effort, *** violent effort to rip up the ceiling from the bottom of the pool. And irrespective of whether or not, you know, we think that you know there is some situation that preceded it, we can state and prove beyond *** reasonable doubt that he caused damage. And that damage is over $1000 on that, how do you prove that with an expert, come to the trial. It has to be drained. Like is that because you can we’ll hear all that at the trial. Did he have any tools or was it just his bare hands? Uh, right now we believe it’s his bare hands, both hands. So does that indicate in your belief that it was probably damaged before, or do you believe that he. Oh, he damaged it further, but do you believe it had already been damaged before? He damaged the pool before he touched it. He damaged this pool. But there have been, you know, all these videos. Well, good, I’m glad you’ve got that evidence. Come on in the grand jury, you can testify. Next. Thank you for your time today. You’re welcome. The citation that Mr. Hearn received suggested that he would be charged with misdemeanors, but the president obviously called for this to be *** felony charge here. Did you ultimately decide to charge this so harshly at the president’s? I didn’t charge anything harshly. I charge according to the evidence. When we have witnesses, when we have the defendant on record saying things that are not true. And we have witnesses who are disinterested, who have no motive to lie. They have no agenda, they’re just working there and they are actually witnessing damage to *** national monument. We’re going to go forward now. My office reviews all. Citations. Everything that the police do in this jurisdiction is reviewed by my office. We review it. This is *** case with tremendous evidence, and this is *** case where the evidence dictates where we land. Next, there have been other people who have been arrested for incidents at the reflecting pool. Are you taking all of them to the grand jury? It depends on the evidence that we have. We have about 6 other cases. Some of them will be misdemeanors and some of them could be less like *** violation, but we’re reviewing every case based upon the evidence and reviewing all of the reports, and right now it’s about another 6 misdemeanors. Yes, sir. Uh, um, the president said that somebody took *** box cutter and cut the reflecting pool. Is that, do you, is there any update to that case? Is there any evidence that you can point to as *** follow up? You know, I was at the reflecting pool yesterday, and I think it’s very sad. Uh, someone intentionally did *** tremendous amount of damage to the pool, and you can actually, uh, see where all the cutting is. They took *** sharp object and cut for many feet along the pool, that, uh. Well, well, when I file *** charge, I’ll be happy to show you *** picture, all right? Uh, what I’m trying to do is we’re trying to find out who did it, OK? And until we get to that point, I’m not gonna be able to, you know, discuss anything more than there was tremendous damage that was caused. Yes, sir. Yes. Yes, ma’am. 4 years ago we had that guy from Indiana who damaged the Washington Monument. He pled guilty and he was misdemeanor. What are you trying to do is send you like *** strong message from now on we’ll damage and gonna get *** big penalty looks like, you know, here’s, we are in, um. In *** lane where it depends on the evidence, you know, if the, if the damage can be repaired for less than $1000 it’s *** misdemeanor. If it costs *** lot more than $1000 then we’re at the felony level. It’s up to the judge to decide what the sentence is after *** jury looks at the case. My job is to look at the evidence and to bring it to *** grand jury who agreed that this should be *** felony based upon the evidence that they heard and they returned *** true bill that this person should be charged with this felony. One more. For your time today. Um, how do you square charging this alleged. When this is the same Yeah. All righty, this is *** problem. You know, over 1000 January 6ths who caused millions of dollars of damage. Are you really talking about January 6th? Yes. I’m not. There’s OK, who’s next? Not you. No. Yes, you again, go ahead. Could you please explain the bench warrant that was issued for his arrest? Is Mr. Hearn being arrested today? Do we have ***, he’s, he’s not. Yeah, he’s not being arrested. No. Yeah. Yeah. No. Superior versus. Did the, did the grand jury unanimously turn *** true? I don’t take *** check of unanimous versus nonunanimous, and as soon as they give me *** right to do that, I’d be happy to do that, but I don’t have that right. Thank you, everybody. Have *** great 4th. This, uh, like threat environment ahead of the 4th, is, is there anything you’re tracking, any, I, I’m not, I’m not tracking anything in terms of *** threat environment. I hope I’m not tracking anything in terms of *** threat environment. We’re all hoping that Americans are able to celebrate whether they’re in DC or around the country. I mean this is *** wonderful, wonderful holiday. It’s not just any Fourth of July. This is *** big one, and I hope you and your families, I hope you don’t have to work, everybody, and I hope you’re gonna enjoy. Thank you.