The Justice Department's inspector general has declined to investigate the criminal case against Bethesda's David Hearn. The former Olympic canoeist was cleared of charges that he damaged the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Hearn's lawyers disclosed the decision in a letter Wednesday, Oct. 21, urging DOJ Inspector General Don R. Berthiaume to reverse course, the Associated Press reported via NBC Washington.
The inspector general's office told Hearn's legal team that their allegations of prosecutorial misconduct fall outside its jurisdiction and belong instead with the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), according to the lawyers' letter. The OPR reports to the deputy attorney general and attorney general and has no obligation to make its findings public or report them to Congress, the lawyers noted.
Hearn's attorneys argue the inspector general is better positioned to conduct an independent review. Among them is Michael Bromwich, who served as DOJ inspector general during the Clinton administration.
"Your decision not to investigate would be consigning these serious allegations to oblivion despite the enormous public interest in the matter and the absence thus far of any accountability for the individuals involved," the lawyers' letter states.
The legal team says it has identified potential crimes in the government's handling of the case, including witness tampering, obstruction of justice and the eliciting of false grand jury testimony. They also want the inspector general to examine whether U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, whose office prosecuted the case, violated ethical rules at a news conference announcing charges against Hearn.
The AP reported that the U.S. Attorney's Office did not respond to a request for comment when Hearn's attorneys first raised the allegations earlier in October.
Hearn, 67, competed in three Summer Olympics and earned his best finish, ninth, at the 1996 Atlanta Games. He has said he was on a bike ride June 19 when he reached into the pool to examine its newly peeled coating and briefly touched a chunk attached to the side. He said he let go when a park worker told him to. He was arrested and detained for nearly five hours, Patch reported.
A grand jury indicted him on one felony count of property destruction carrying a maximum 10-year prison sentence. He pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors moved to dismiss the case at the end of July after newly produced evidence from the Interior Department showed a contractor's rushed installation caused the damage to the pool's lining, not vandalism. U.S. Attorney Pirro said her office would not have sought charges had the Interior Department shared that information sooner, according to Maryland Matters.
But the government initially sought dismissal without prejudice, which would have allowed prosecutors to refile charges. Hearn's attorneys pushed for a permanent end to the case.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman granted that request Oct. 1, dismissing the case with prejudice. In a 26-page ruling, Edelman wrote that the government "has no right to retain the ability to compound the errors it has already made, or even to threaten to do so, at Mr. Hearn's expense."
Hearn's lawyers had asked both the Justice and Interior department inspectors general to investigate what they called "incompetence and misconduct" by officials operating under political pressure. Whether the Interior Department's inspector general will act on the request remains unclear.
Hearn's legal team now wants Berthiaume to reconsider, warning that routing the matter to OPR would leave serious allegations without meaningful independent oversight.
