Hollywood mogul won’t face charges in Dorner helicopter spat

Prosecutors have declined to file charges against a Hollywood studio head who became the focus of a criminal investigation after landing his helicopter on a Sheriff’s Department helipad during the manhunt for ex-Los Angeles police officer Christopher Dorner.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office concluded that there was no evidence that Relativity Media’s Ryan Kavanaugh knew a captain had denied him permission to land at the helipad. Prosecutors also concluded that they couldn’t prove that Kavanaugh endangered anyone’s life or property, since he landed his aircraft at a time when the sheriff’s helicopters nearby weren’t in operation.

Kavanaugh is known for taking a chopper to the office and appointments around town. The noisy landings have drawn complaints from some nearby residents.

But his camp has argued that the criminal investigation launched by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was politically motivated.

“We’re pleased that the district attorney’s office reached the obvious conclusion for the second time,” said Relativity spokesman David Shane, referring to the fact that prosecutors had declined to file charges in connection with the incident once before. “It’s shameful that the sheriff wasted precious taxpayer time and money to fuel his political agenda.”

Kavanaugh’s defenders have said the criminal investigation was political payback by Sheriff Lee Baca because Kavanaugh is supporting another potential candidate for sheriff in next year’s election: Baca’s outgoing top aide Paul Tanaka.

Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said the probe “never was politically motivated.”

“The sheriff,” he said, “didn’t even know about this until long after the report was filed.”

Kavanaugh, a sheriff’s volunteer, was landing at a sheriff’s helipad for an appointment with Tanaka. Around that time, the hunt for Dorner, an accused killer, was beginning, but according to a source close to Kavanaugh, the studio head did not know about it until he was taking off and leaving. Kavanaugh, the source said, in no way impeded any law enforcement action.

The district attorney’s memo explaining why the office chose not to file charges made no mention of the Dorner manhunt, though it stated the incident occurred on Feb. 7, just as the search was going into full swing.

According to the memo, two sheriff’s helicopters were nearby but unoccupied, with their rotors not running. After the Hollywood executive drove off in a car waiting for him, a sergeant approached Kavanaugh’s co-pilot. The pilot showed a letter from the sheriff’s Aero captain at the time saying Kavanaugh was authorized to land on approved helipads if he had permission from their proprietors.

When Kavanaugh returned, he said he got a text message from Tanaka before he landed giving him permission to do so.

That captain was later interviewed, and said that he had been asked by another sheriff’s captain to give Kavanaugh permission to land on the sheriff’s helipad, but had denied the request. Prosecutors said they found no evidence that Kavanaugh had ever learned of that denial.

In the past, the Sheriff’s Department had been supportive of Kavanaugh’s chopper rides. In 2011, he came under heat from residents around the West Hollywood neighborhood where he often landed.

That prompted a skirmish between the hotel that was letting him use its helipad and the California Department of Transportation, which issues relevant permits. An official there sent a terse letter to hotel management ordering that any illegal helicopter activity cease immediately.

In that spat, sheriff’s brass appeared to come to Kavanaugh’s defense, with a top official writing a letter to the Sofitel hotel to say the department did not oppose Kavanaugh’s use of the hotel’s helipad.

Kavanaugh has raised more than $156,000 for the Sheriff’s Youth Fund, according to a department spokesman. In 2008, the department gave him an award for his work on behalf of the charity.

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Twitter: RobertFaturechi

robert.faturechi@latimes.com