Three more people accused of damaging part of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington last month have been criminally charged, according to court documents.
The three people face misdemeanor charges of destroying property and causing damage worth less than $1,000. According to court documents, the defendants, Sophie Dennison-Gibby, 49, Justin Carreno, 47, and Cameron Thiers, 26, were detained between 1 and 3 p.m. on June 20 after they peeled and removed pieces of paint from the reflecting pool, which sits on the National Mall between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Convictions on the charges carry a maximum punishment of 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
The defendants have been ordered by a judge to stay away from the pool until their cases are resolved, court records show. They also must check in with court officials by phone once a month. All three have court appearances scheduled for late August, the documents say.
President Trump has blamed vandalism for the deteriorating conditions of the reflecting pool, which is undergoing a $16.4 million renovation. Leaks and algae in the pool have also bedeviled previous presidents, but experts have said that the recent problems could have been caused by the pool’s quick overhaul.
Mr. Trump said vandals dumped fertilizer into the pool to feed the algae and slashed the paint with “knives” in the ‘dark of night,’” but the Trump administration has not provided evidence to support that assertion. And Ms. Dennison-Gibby, Mr. Carreno and Mr. Thiers have not been accused of that.
Officers said they observed Mr. Thiers and Mr. Carreno reach their hands into the water, peel pieces of blue sealant off and pull them out of the water, according to arrest records. Officers also found a piece of the reflecting pool liner in Ms. Dennison-Gibby’s purse, the records showed.
Neither Mr. Thiers nor Ms. Dennison-Gibby could be reached for comment on Wednesday, and Mr. Carreno declined to comment. Jamison Koehler, listed in court documents as a lawyer representing Ms. Dennison-Gibby, declined to comment. Court records did not list lawyers for the other two defendants.
A fourth person accused in the pool case, David Carter Hearn, 67, was charged earlier with “destruction of property of $1,000 or more,” a felony. Mr. Hearn, a former Olympic canoeist, is accused of pulling up a piece of the liner after the liner had already started to peel. Lawyers representing Mr. Hearn have said he was innocent and called the charges “outrageous” and a “misuse of government power against an ordinary citizen.” He faces an arraignment on Thursday.
Some of the problems in the pool, including peeling paint, algae and murky water, are tied to the Trump administration and the companies involved in the renovation, a New York Times analysis found. The administration awarded a no-bid contract to spread the blue coating on the pool’s concrete slabs, and the coating might be peeling because it is not stretchy enough, one expert said.
Before an event to promote Mr. Trump’s Ultimate Fighting Championship birthday celebration at the White House, officials removed devices, called nanobubblers, that had been used to combat algae blooms in the pool but had been an eyesore. By the following day, the water had turned from blue to green with algae. Once the algae appeared, it was difficult to remove, and the pool is being drained again.
Even before Mr. Trump announced the renovation project this year, the reflecting pool had been plagued with problems, including leaky pipes that needed replacement. The renovation does not address that issue.
Georgia Gee contributed research.