Former Olympian Charged With Vandalism After He Said He Checked Out The Peeling Blue Bottom Of The Reflecting Pool

(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

A former Olympian was arrested and charged with “destruction of government property” after pausing his bike ride to, according to him, check out the algae-ridden Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s peeling blue bottom.

David Hearn, a 67-year-old three-time Olympian in the canoe slalom, said he stopped at the pool Saturday while finishing up a leg of a 52-mile bike ride. U.S. Park Police officers arrested him on the misdemeanor charge after he said he reached into the water to experience what the detached blue liner “felt like” for himself.

“I reached in there, and I was able to grab the end of that flapping piece, the already peeling piece,” Hearn said in an interview with The Washington Post. “It was still attached to the bottom. I didn’t remove anything.”

Hearn added, “I didn’t vandalize anything. I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.”

The Bethesda, MD, man is scheduled to appear in D.C. Superior Court on July 9.

The century-old Reflecting Pool was plagued with pea-green algae just days after crews completed coating the bottom with blue sealant in a $14 million renovation that President Donald Trump claimed would last for some 50 years. After the U.S. Park Service tried to remedy the slimy situation with gallons of hydrogen peroxide — a known paint stripper at high concentrations — the sealant began peeling away.

As more and more journalists and influencers reported on the blight, and some tourists took pieces of the peeling sealant as  souvenirs, Trump blamed the entire situation on “vandalism.”

Trump posted to Truth Social, “[W]e’ve had some real problems with Vandalism at the beautiful Reflecting Pool, which sits between The Washington Monument and The Lincoln Memorial.”

The president accused vandals of trying to “destroy and demean our beautiful work,” claiming, “The algae is 75% gone, and the condition will soon be completely remedied, and the area that was vandalized, fortunately, is just a small area of damage, and will be fixed early next week.”

Trump took the opportunity to post about Hearn’s arrest on Truth Social, then elaborated about jail time.

“The United States Park Police have arrested multiple individuals for vandalizing our Nations magnificent Reflecting Poll. Who would do such a thing? These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments. Years in jail! Work will begin immediately on its repair,” Trump wrote.

According to The New York Times, however, vandalism had little to do with the problem. The paper reported in May that Trump’s project ignored a “major underlying problem” with old, leaky pipes that it said would still allow algae to grow and cover up its new blue shade.

Experts told the Times that unless the underlying problem with the leaky pipes was fixed, “the algae could come back,” which it did with a vengeance.

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