A former US Olympic athlete has been indicted on a federal charge over accusations that he damaged one of the best-known landmarks on the National Mall, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. It is a case he flatly denies, setting up a clash between the government's account and his own.
A grand jury in Washington indicted the man, identified as David Hearn, 67, a former Olympic canoeist. The indictment was returned on Thursday, formally advancing a case that began with his arrest last month.
The charge is a serious one. Hearn was charged with a single count of destruction of property valued at more than 1,000 dollars, a felony that carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison if he is convicted.
The accusation centers on the pool's lining. Prosecutors allege that on June 19 Hearn maliciously broke or destroyed the lining material on the bottom of the recently refurbished Reflecting Pool, causing more than 1,000 dollars in damage to the landmark.
The government has described the act as intentional. US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said it was a deliberate act to damage the Reflecting Pool, and prosecutors said National Park employees reported watching Hearn forcefully pulling up and removing the bottom liner with both hands.
Hearn has offered a very different account. After his arrest last month, he said, "I didn't vandalize anything," explaining that he had noticed a piece of the pool's blue liner had already come partially detached and that he reached into the water to touch it, simply to see what it felt like.
The setting gives the case its prominence. The Reflecting Pool stretches between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument and had recently been refurbished, making any damage to it a sensitive matter at a site that draws millions of visitors each year.
For now, the indictment represents an accusation rather than a finding of guilt, and Hearn is presumed innocent unless the case is proven. With his account and the government's sharply at odds, the dispute over what happened at the water's edge is likely to be at the heart of the proceedings ahead.