URBANA — A Champaign County judge has sentenced a woman convicted of aggravated battery for slugging a health foods store employee to two years of probation.

Judge Tom Difanis also ordered Latoya J. Brown, 40, of the 100 block of Paddock Drive, Savoy, to get a mental health evaluation and engage in counseling to avoid a repeat of the behavior that got her into a criminal court for the first time in her life.

A jury convicted Brown in August of aggravated battery, finding that she slugged Strawberry Fields employee Wyatt Bunn, 21, in the forehead as she held keys in her hand on Dec. 20. His head was cut and bled but he didn't require medical attention.

Testimony revealed that the scuffle between Brown and Bunn happened after she began emptying boxes of merchandise waiting to be stocked on to the floor of the store at 306 W. Springfield Ave., U. She had come in looking for empty boxes.

Bunn said after Brown hit him, he grabbed her by the upper arms and walked her backwards, prompting her to yell and curse at the employees who had gathered to witness the commotion. They called police and Brown complained that the University of Illinois police officer who showed up first had touched her without cause.

Difanis said Champaign psychiatrist Larry Jeckel found Brown to suffer from a paranoid personality disturbance, a fact the judge found mitigating.

"It certainly does explain what happened when all hell broke loose at Strawberry Fields," the judge said.