New details were emerging Thursday about the former three-time Olympic athlete who was facing felony charges after he was arrested last month after allegedly touching the detached paint of the $14 million renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
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U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro was expected to hold a press conference about David Hearn, who was indicted by a grand jury after his arrest, according to CNN correspondent Katelyn Polantz.
Hearn has competed three times in the canoe slalom and was riding his bike near the memorial when he stopped to see the Reflecting Pool and reportedly reached inside to feel a piece of partially detached paint from the bottom, and was then cited by park police.
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“He has said that he was just curious about it; he wasn’t trying to vandalize it,” Polantz reported. “But the President Donald Trump, he came out there amid this, amid the arrest of David Hearn, and said this was vandalization and he then called for very aggressive law enforcement and prosecution of anything around the Reflecting Pool.”
“Please remember that there is a 10-year prison sentence for the destruction of federal property, or even the attempted destruction of such things, which will be fully enforced,” Polantz added. “So now one of the questions is what, in this case, made the U S Attorney, Jeanine Pirro, decide that this should be a felony charge rather than a much lesser charge. For David Hearn — just choosing not to stick with the citation he received, choosing to take it through a grand jury in Washington, DC. What made her do that, and did the president’s calling for a very aggressive charge here, a felony charge, factor into the prosecutor’s consideration of this case?”
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