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U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn pleaded not guilty to charges of damaging the Reflecting Pool at the base of the Washington Monument.
The 67-year-old, who competed in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympics, was indicted July 2, after he was accused of ripping out a portion of the sealant from the bottom of the Reflecting Pool on June 19. He faces up to 10 years in prison, if convicted.
Hearn said he stopped by the pool during a 64-mile bike ride and was arrested after reaching down into the pool. He has said he was just interested in the material and briefly touched it.
Hearn’s attorneys, Mary Dohrmann, senior counsel at Washington Litigation Group, and Norm Eisen, co-founder and executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, requested a status hearing and trial date and advocated for “release with no restriction” in the meantime.
A status hearing has been set for Aug. 5.
The government asked for a “stay away, no contact order,” which Dohrmann opposed.
Hearn is “an upstanding citizen” and “does not need supervision of any kind,” Dohrmann argued. She added it would be “a waste of court resources to impose any restrictions.”
Elizabeth Frantz / REUTERS
The judge agreed to release Hearn on his own recognizance.
The case “reflects the administration’s effort to shift blame for their own failures,” his lawyers said in a statement after Hearn’s indictment last week.
On Thursday, his attorneys issued a statement saying they had “confidence in our justice system to see through this misuse of government power against an ordinary American based on a false and politicized narrative.”
