HILLSBORO, Mo. (AP) - A Missouri woman was chastised by a judge but then placed on probation for hitting a man with a baseball bat because she believed he was selling heroin to her son.
Fifty-four-year-old Sherrie Gavan of Imperial was sentenced Tuesday to two years of probation for third-degree assault.
Gavan testified during her trial that she had tried everything to protect her son, Clayton, from drug use. When her efforts failed in 2011, she hit 21-year-old Joshua Loyd, whom she believed supplied the drugs, with an aluminum bat.
Loyd was not hurt but he said in a statement Tuesday that he was not a drug dealer and the case had damaged his reputation.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports (http://bit.ly/13F0R9I ) that Clayton Gavan says he's been off drugs for more than a year.
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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com