A former Olympic athlete from Maryland claims he was arrested for reaching into the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to touch a piece of the “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 about $2 million but the price tag ultimately exceeded $14 million.
But within days of the project’s completion, the pool’s water was fouled by algae that turned it green and the basin’s coating began separating and floating to the surface.
Hearn is a two-time whitewater racing world champion who competed in the canoe slalom at three Olympic Games, according to The Post.
More to follow…
