A former Olympic athlete from Maryland claims he was arrested for reaching into the troubled Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to touch a piece of the failing “American flag blue” sealant that’s coming off its basin.
“I didn’t vandalize anything,” David Hearn, 67, told The Washington Post on Saturday. “I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.”
U.S. Park Police officers charged Hearn with misdemeanor destruction of government property and released him to appear in District of Columbia Superior Court on July 9, according to The Post.
A National Park Service spokesperson didn’t immediately return an inquiry from The Independent.
The incident came the same day that President Donald Trump alleged that vandals had “done everything possible to hurt the inside surface that was just installed” to “destroy and demean our beautiful work.”
Trump ordered the pool renovated ahead of nation’s upcoming 250th Independence Day on July 4 and said it would cost roughly $1.5 million but the price tag has reached nearly $14.7 million.
Within days of the project’s completion, the pool’s water was fouled by algae that turned it green and the blue coating began separating from the basin.
Late Saturday afternoon, Trump claimed without evidence that the Park Police had “arrested multiple individuals” for vandalizing the pool and threatened, “Years in jail!”
“Work will begin immediately on its repair,” he added
Hearn, of Bethesda, is a two-time whitewater racing world champion who competed in the canoe slalom at three Olympic Games, according to The Post.
His arrest on Friday was caught on camera by conservative journalist Emily Miller, who posted a two-minute video clip on social media that showed him detained by two National Guard members and then surrounded by Park Police officers, The Post said.
Miller reportedly wrote that Hearn allegedly “grabbed the hose that female National Park Service workers were using to clear the algae.”
Audio of the encounter was largely drowned out by the sound of a pump, The Post said.
On Saturday, Hearn said his arrest came while he was on a planned 52-mile bicycle ride.
He denied touching the hose but said his bicycle may have accidentally come into contact with it.
When asked to describe his actions, he said, “I reached in there, and I was able to grab the end of that flapping piece, the already peeling piece. It was still attached to the bottom. I didn’t remove anything.”
Hearn said he was kept in custody for almost five hours at a nearby Park Police facility before being released shortly after 9 p.m. Friday, after which he rode home on his bike.
Hearn was previously arrested by the Park Police in 1996 for canoeing on the Potomac River after heavy rains raised it to a near-record level, according to The Post.
But charges of failing to obey a lawful order and interfering with police were dismissed by a federal judge because the river was under Maryland’s jurisdiction.
