David Carter Hearn (born April 17, 1959) is a former slalom canoeist who competed from the late 1970s to the early 2000s. He represented the United States at the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Summer Olympics.
He is also known for having faced legal issues with the United States Park Police in 1996 and 2026, although both cases against him were ultimately dropped. In the latter case, which involved the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, federal prosecutors admitted that the charges had been premised on factual misrepresentations made by the Department of the Interior.
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Career
David Hearn was born in 1959 in Bethesda, Maryland. Hearn has said that his decision to begin pursuing a competitive career in canoe slalom came after hearing the news of Jamie McEwan's bronze medal in whitewater slalom at the 1972 Summer Olympics on the radio with his sister Cathy. He would often train at Great Falls with his sister and Jon Lugbill.
Hearn won seven medals in the C1 event at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships with two golds (1985, 1995) and five silvers (1979, 1981, 1983, 1987, 1989). He also won six consecutive world championship gold medals in the C1 team event (1979–1989). Hearn competed in three Summer Olympics, earning his best finish of ninth in the C1 event in Atlanta in 1996. Hearn's sister, Cathy, and his ex-brother-in-law, Lecky Haller, also competed in canoe slalom for the United States at the Olympics.
Legal issues
In 1996, Hearn canoed in the Potomac River after heavy rains and was ordered to stop by United States Park Police officers, who asserted that it was dangerous. When he did not stop canoeing, he was arrested on charges of disobeying a police officer and resisting arrest. The charges were dismissed because the Park Police did not have jurisdiction over the portion of the river that he was in. Later that same year, he used his canoeing skills to help Park Police retrieve fishermen who were stranded offshore without life vests.
On June 19, 2026, Hearn was arrested by the United States Park Police on suspicion of damaging government property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., after U.S. President Donald Trump falsely claimed that vandals had damaged the pool following its troubled $13.1 million renovation. Hearn denied causing any damage, stating that he had only touched the pool's peeling paint. He was indicted on one count of felony destruction of property on July 2, 2026, and pleaded not guilty on July 9. The Department of Justice moved to dismiss the charges against Hearn on July 31, acknowledging that the damage to the pool resulted from defects in the renovation rather than vandalism. Hearn's lawyers sought to have the charges dropped with prejudice to prevent further prosecutorial harassment, as Executive Branch officials continued to falsely claim that Hearn had damaged the pool despite a lack of evidence.