A District of Columbia judge has permanently dismissed the felony case against former U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn, who had been indicted over damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, ABC News reports.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman dismissed the case “with prejudice,” which bars prosecutors from refiling it.
The office of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro had already moved to drop the charge, after concluding the damage came from flawed installation by a government contractor, but asked to do so without prejudice, leaving the door open to a new case.
Pirro is the prosecutor in the case, not the judge who ruled. President Donald Trump criticized her earlier decision to drop the case, saying she “choked” and “folded like an umbrella.”
Edelman wrote that he respects prosecutors’ authority to decide which cases to pursue, but that “the government has no right to retain the ability to compound the errors it has already made.”
He cited “the pressure that the President of the United States has placed on his subordinates” and the “extraordinary possibility” of “a meritless, politically motivated prosecution.”
Hearn’s lawyers called the ruling “a victory for the rule of law.” The Justice Department did not immediately respond to ABC’s request for comment.
Click here to read the full story on ABC News
