Will lawyers for David Hearn in Reflecting Pool case file a Motion to Dismiss before the end of July?
74% of users predicted YES — the community got this one right. 31 predictions cast.
Attorneys for David Hearn, the former Olympian charged with damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool's liner, filed a motion to dismiss the felony indictment on July 16 -- before the end of July as predicted. The motion argued that the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia failed to preserve key physical evidence -- the section of pool liner Hearn is accused of damaging -- after the National Park Service drained the pool for planned repairs.
When defense attorneys inspected the drained pool, they found the liner section central to the case was missing, undermining the government's ability to present physical evidence of the alleged damage. D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman declined to dismiss the case outright at a July 20 hearing but pressed prosecutors to account for the evidence's condition and set a trial date of September 28.
Hearn, 67, was indicted July 2 on a charge of vandalizing the pool on June 19 and has pleaded not guilty. The draining of the pool for routine maintenance, rather than any deliberate act, created the evidentiary complication now at the center of the defense's argument.
The community anticipated this correctly, with 74% of predictors expecting the motion to be filed before the end of July.