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.