On June 19, David Hearn stopped during a bike ride to look at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, whose new lining was peeling. By his account he examined the damage and briefly took hold of a loose piece still attached to the side of the pool, then let go when a park worker told him to.

National Guard troops and U.S. Park Police detained him for five hours, PBS NewsHour reported. He was charged with one felony count of destroying property, on an allegation of at least $1,000 in damage, carrying up to 10 years in prison. He pleaded not guilty. Trial was set for September 28 in D.C. Superior Court.

On Friday, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro moved to dismiss the case.

What the government told the court

The reason, in the government's own filing, is that the damage was not vandalism.

The pool's lining had been installed badly. The filing refers to a "flawed installation by the contractor" and to conditions produced by "the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration," PBS reported. A National Park Service witness testified that the pool already had substantial damage before the conduct Hearn was accused of, and a visual inspection showed damage in the middle of the pool, where vandalism by a person standing at the edge was not a plausible explanation, ESPN reported.

The filing's conclusion was that "it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism," and, ESPN reported, to establish it beyond a reasonable doubt.

What this is and is not

A motion to dismiss is not a court finding that the prosecution was improper. The government has not conceded misconduct; it has said the evidence changed. Prosecutors dropping a case after new information emerges is the system doing what it is supposed to do, and it is worth saying so plainly before saying anything else.

It is also true that the something new here was documentation from another federal agency about a federal contractor's work on federal property, and that it surfaced after a 67-year-old man had already been detained for five hours and charged with a decade-level felony.

Hearn's lawyers made that point. "Its dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power," they said in a statement quoted by PBS.

Hearn competed in three Summer Olympics, with a best finish of ninth at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Still unanswered

Neither report addresses what happens to the pool itself, or whether the contractor faces any consequence for the installation the Justice Department has now cited as the actual cause. The lining was being replaced ahead of the America 250 events around the Fourth of July. The government's filing says the schedule pressure contributed to how the work turned out.

That is a separate question from Hearn's case, and nobody has yet been asked it.