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The man who has been most vocal about his claim to the Christopher Dorner reward has been awarded absolutely none of it, and on Friday a judge blocked his attempt to prevent other recipients from receiving their cut of the money.
Through his lawyer, camp ranger Richard Heltebrake expressed disappointment in authorities' decision to completely cut him out of the $1 million reward, despite the fact that Heltebrake was one of the last people to see Dorner alive.
"I think lost in this whole process is that Mr. Heltebrake was the victim of a violent crime with Mr. Dorner pointing a rifle at him, and is basically getting the shaft by the city," said attorney Allen Thomas to NBC Los Angeles in the video above.
A panel of three judges announced Wednesday that they were giving the bulk of the reward, $800,000, to James and Karen Reynolds, whom Dorner tied up in a cabin. Judges also gave $150,000 to Daniel McGowan, who found Dorner's burning pickup truck in Big Bear, and $50,000 to R.L. McDaniel, who saw Dorner at a gas station during the manhunt, reports the Associated Press.
Heltebrake was driving on Route 38 in Big Bear, Calif. Feb. 12 when he came across Dorner standing in the middle of the road. Dorner pointed a gun at Heltebrake and ordered him to get out of the car and walk away. But that apparently wasn't enough to merit a cut of the reward, as police were already on Dorner's trial by the time Heltebrake was able to report the carjacking, according to the panel's report.
Heltebrake sued the city of Los Angeles last week for the entire reward sum, plus damages, while the judges were still determining how to split it up.
Dorner, a former LAPD police officer, was the subject of a week-long, statewide manhunt in connection with the murders of Monica Quan and her fiance Keith Lawrence. Authorities suspected he was the culprit after finding his manifesto online, which detailed his grievances against the LAPD and a list of people he wanted to target. During the manhunt, Dorner is believed to have killed two law enforcement officers before finally committing suicide.
Mid-way through the manhunt, law enforcement authorities announced a $1 million reward for information leading to Dorner's arrest. But in the months since his death, entities who had contributed money to the reward began pulling their funds back, and others began pointing out a "loophole" -- Dorner was never arrested.
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