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The Justice Department (DOJ) on Monday moved to drop its charges against more people accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, shortly after dropping a similar case against a former Olympian canoeist.
Prosecutors led by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro filed a noelle prosequi, meaning they are no longer looking to press charges against Cameron Theirs, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Justin Carreno, according to court records.
The DOJ accused all four people, including three-time Olympic canoeist David Hearn, of destruction of property with a value of less than $1,000. The case against Hearn was dropped on Friday, with Pirro’s office casting blame on the contractor for overspraying and delamination. A grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted Hearn last month on charges of felony destruction of property and faced 10 years in prison.
Defense lawyer Jamison Koehler told USA Today that his client, Dennison-Gibby, was relieved that the charge was dropped, “but this was a horrible experience for her.”
Koehler noted that his client, “was then terrified to learn a couple days later that the president of the United States, the most powerful person in the world, had said that she and others charged were sick people who faced jail time.
The lawyer added, “Can you imagine being singled out by the president?”
Attorney David Benowitz, who represented Carreno, told the Washington Post that his client lost his job as a government contractor and faced reputational damage due to the case. He added that the charge “never should have been brought in the first place.”
The Hill has reached out to Pirro’s office for comment.
In announcing the indictment against Hearn, Pirro last month hinted that there were others who would face charges in connection with the pool’s damage, including peeling of the “American flag blue” paint and a growing algae bloom. She said the cases were under review and that some “of them will be misdemeanors and some of them could be less, like a violation.”
President Trump and his administration have claimed that vandals damaged the Reflecting Pool after the site reopened to the public following months of renovations. Trump on Monday said Pirro “choked” in her decision to drop the charges.
“Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after her and went after her department,” he said, appearing to refer to D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman. “And I guess she choked. I don’t know what the hell happened.”
Pirro previously accused Hearn of removing installed sealant from the bottom of the pool with his bare hands. But on Friday, the U.S. attorney announced the charges would be dropped, instead blaming contractors in charge of the Reflecting Pool installation.
Trump has insisted that the damage was “a pure case of VANDALISM.”
Pirro later visited the White House on Monday, her future with the administration in question after a decades-long friendly relationship with the president.
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