A judge on Thursday dismissed the criminal case accusing former U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and permanently barred prosecutors from bringing the same charges again.
District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman, in his order dismissing the case “with prejudice,” cited the “exceptional circumstances” of the risk that President Donald Trump would pressure prosecutors to charge Hearn. A dismissal with prejudice prevents the filing of a case.
Edelman noted that Trump, who ordered renovations to the Lincoln Memorial pool this year, angrily lashed out at D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro when she moved to dismiss the case after admitting that the damage to his water feature was caused by a “defective installation,” not Hearn tearing up its liner.
Trump has repeatedly insisted that the damage to the reflecting pool was the result of intentional vandalism. He continues to claim that vandals carved a gash several hundred feet long in the pool’s protective covering.
Pirro asked Edelman to dismiss the case without prejudice, allowing him to refile charges later.
“I think it is in the public interest to allow a grand jury, at a later date” to issue an indictment if new information comes to light, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Spence told Edelman during a court hearing in September.
Hearn’s lawyers argued there was “no good reason” to keep the case alive given the new evidence cited by Pirro.
In his Thursday ruling siding with that argument, Edelman wrote: “Although all defendants face some degree of uncertainty about the chances of being prosecuted again after a case is dismissed, Mr. Hearn faces the unique possibility that the government will revive this case – a case he has already announced without merit – based on political pressure exerted by the President of the United States on his subordinate officers.” »
The judge wrote that he respected the U.S. attorney’s power to decide which cases to pursue and which to dismiss.
“However, under the exceptional circumstances posed by this case, the government is not entitled to retain the option of compounding the mistakes it has already made, or even threatening to do so, at Mr. Hearn’s expense,” Edelman wrote in the order, which Hearn’s lawyers shared with CNBC.
In a statement released Thursday, Hearn’s lawyers called Edelman’s dismissal of the case “a victory for the rule of law and for an innocent American seeking justice.”
“This case should never have been brought in the first place,” the statement said. “What happened to Mr. Hearn is a scandal that should shock every American.”
The White House and Pirro’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the judge’s order.
—CNBC Dan Mangan contributed to this article
Gn usa
