The Justice Department’s inspector general has declined to investigate the handling of the case against David Hearn, a former Olympic athlete accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, prompting his lawyers to call for an independent review of alleged misconduct by federal officials.
The department’s internal watchdog said the allegations fall outside its jurisdiction and instead belong to the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, according to a letter from Hearn’s attorneys urging Inspector General Don Berthiaume to reconsider the decision.
“Given the substantial public attention devoted to this matter, and the significant questions raised concerning the conduct of federal officials, declining independent review would risk undermining public confidence in the Department’s ability to police its own conduct,” the attorneys wrote. “Such a result would be inconsistent with the purposes for which Congress established the OIG and would be a betrayal of its mission.”
In an earlier letter sent in October, Hearn’s lawyers accused employees of the Justice and Interior departments of mishandling the case, arguing that the government rushed to indict him while investigators were still determining the cause of the damage.
“This bland recital of the central events that ensnared Mr. Hearn should not obscure the nightmare that he has lived with as the result of the incompetence and wrongdoing of employees of the Department of the Interior … and the Department of Justice … since before his arrest,” the letter said.
The attorneys pointed to a D.C. Superior Court judge’s decision to dismiss the indictment with prejudice, preventing prosecutors from bringing the same charges again.
The judge cited the government’s errors and sought to prevent it from “compound[ing] the errors it has already made … at Mr. Hearn’s expense,” according to the letter.
Hearn pleaded not guilty to a felony property-destruction charge carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. He was scheduled to stand trial on Sept. 28 before U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro moved to dismiss the case.
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In seeking dismissal, Pirro acknowledged that the damage to the landmark resulted from “flawed installation by the contractor,” rather than intentional vandalism. Federal authorities had accused Hearn of tearing the pool’s lining, but the lining had already begun peeling before the June 19 incident that led to his arrest.
Hearn’s attorneys also accused senior officials, including Pirro, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and President Donald Trump, of damaging his reputation through their handling of the case. They are seeking an investigation to establish accountability for the government’s actions.