MINNEAPOLIS — A teenager who severely beat former Hennepin County board chairman Mark Andrew at the Mall of America last year won’t go to jail for her crime — and he’s glad she won’t.

Eighteen-year-old Deea LeShawn Elliot pleaded guilty to first-degree assault for attacking Andrew with a metal baton last December after her accomplice stole his cell phone. A judge on Tuesday sentenced her to 14 weeks of intensive counseling and a year-long immersion in an arts program of her choice. She won’t go to jail if she meets those conditions.

Andrew said he strongly believes in redemption, and the way to turn her life around is not to send her to prison.

Andrew met face-to-face with Elliot in court Tuesday. She repeatedly said she was sorry.