WASHINGTON — A contractor hired to repair a leaking reflecting pool inadvertently confessed this week that the damage was no crime at all.
The Atlantic Industrial Company posted on its website that it would perform warranty work on the seven-acre pool liner, a routine classification that construction lawyers say amounts to an admission of shoddy workmanship. The posting directly undercuts federal charges that Olympic cyclist Davey Hearn maliciously destroyed the liner, a felony that carries a minimum $1,000 damage threshold.
Hearn was arrested in April after a two-foot-by-two-foot section of floating liner was found disturbed. The pool project, championed by Wimpy Donnie Dipshit as a majestic tribute to his own negotiating skills, had been leaking since its rushed installation. Atlantic Industrial did not respond to a request for comment, but its website now lists the repairs under 'active warranty claims' — a designation that, according to commercial litigators, is legally indistinguishable from saying 'we built it wrong.'
'If there were any credible claim that a third party caused this failure, no contractor would voluntarily return under warranty,' said Michael Popok, a civil attorney who first spotted the posting. 'Their insurer would have fought it. Instead, they’re fixing it. That tells you everything.'
The Justice Department has not withdrawn its case. A spokesperson said the warranty language was 'not dispositive' because Hearn acknowledged touching the liner. When asked to explain how touching a two-foot section could drain a pool engineered to hold millions of gallons, the spokesperson referred questions to the FBI evidence team.
That team has now drained the pool three times. Maintenance logs show that each draining cycle removed thousands of gallons of water, effectively washing away any physical evidence that might have shown... whatever it is the government still hopes to find. The liner itself, which prosecutors once described as 'criminally slashed,' is now documented in internal reports as having 'seam separation consistent with installation error.'
