A former Olympian charged with deliberately damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is seeking access to all of the closed-door testimony that led to his indictment, pointing to “irregularities” in those grand jury proceedings.
In a court filing Monday, David Hearn’s attorneys requested an order for the government to turn over a complete transcript of all grand jury proceedings. They also want prosecutors to disclose the legal instructions they gave to grand jurors about the elements of Hearn’s alleged crime.
Hearn pleaded not guilty earlier this month to one felony count of property destruction and has a trial scheduled to start Sept. 28 in D.C. Superior Court. The charge, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years upon conviction, accuses Hearn of causing at least $1,000 in damage to the pool.
Maybe I’m focusing on the wrong part but… a thousand dollars in damages? I know a lot of people in the states can’t rub two dimes together, but a thousand dollars is like… nothing. Especially for the government and not some guy working two jobs.
They’re claiming he should go to jail for 10 years for maybe causing a thousand dollars of damage to public property? I bet a single church could put together a bake sale one time and raise a thousand dollars.
Obviously if the tables were flipped, and some guy was out there breaking drinking fountains and cutting down trees in a park I’d be pissed… but this doesn’t even feel like an interesting lie!
Likely the charge is for federal property damage over $1000. So they could be saying it’s a million dollars. Who know what stupid shit they’ll put in.
If I can go to a public monument and cause a million, or even a thousand, dollars of damage by touching something in a public place with my hand, it’s not really my fault at that point. It’s the fault of whoever made it so fragile.
It’s an excuse to attack an average citizen and hopefully get away with it, so they can flex a fascist muscle.
Imagine what they would charge the contractor that fucked up the pool? >!nothing!<
Laws like that were written a long time ago and never adjusted for inflation.