“U.S. Olympic canoeist David ‘Davey’ Hearn charged in Reflecting Pool vandalism
Jul. 2, 2026, 2:34 PM EDT
U.S. Olympic canoeist David “Davey” Hearn was indicted Thursday on a single count of destruction of property following his arrest last month at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Hearn was indicted in D.C. Superior Court on the felony charge.
Hearn previously told NBC News that he was arrested and detained for five hours on June 19 after he touched a piece of the detached coating in the pool. He said he had stopped at the landmark during a bike ride “to satisfy my curiosity as a citizen of what was happening with all the algae and the peeling blue coating.”
Hearn said he did not remove, tear, or destroy any of the coating.

“The condition of the Reflecting Pool was the same after I stepped away from the water as it was before I got there,” he said.
Several people have been arrested and cited after President Donald Trump blamed, without evidence, vandals for destroying the pool. This spring, the pool underwent a $14-million-