Since this is a hypothetical question: All of it and I'd pay for his appeals based on violation of his 8th amendment rights.
Yeah, sure you would. You don't have bills to pay and no other financial responsibilities. Of course you'd love to eat your tax dollars in fighting your appeals. Waste those tax dollars, right? Just like wasting those tax dollars by having already having a helicopter in the air instead of the scramble to get one in the air in case of emergency.
It could as easily have been a medivac helicopter delivering an accident victim to a trauma center or a helicopter for a local news and weather outlet.
He had no regard for human life. Apparently you agree with him.
That's why corporal punishment works. The miscreant takes their punishment and it's done.
So beat a man savagely because of the possibility he could've caused an aircraft crash? Are you going to beat your child if they spill water on the floor because someone could have slipped on it and gotten hurt?
What was the helicopter doing over a residential area anyways? If it wasn't being used in a search and rescue or providing assistance for an active police operation then it shouldn't have been in the air. Using a helicopter to "patrol" is nothing more than wasting taxpayer money in the name of government surveillance.
Personally I think the pilot committed entrapment because he saw the guy messing around with the pointer and moved closer, which probably drew the guy's attention and he pointed the laser in that direction much like someone would do with a flashlight. Then pilot claims it was shined in his eyes so that they could charge this guy with a third degree felony.