NEW HAVEN — A woman accused of attacking a teen who flew a drone with a camera over her head on a beach applied for a probationary program in Superior Court Thursday.

Andrea Mears, 23, of Westbrook, applied for accelerated rehabilitation, a program for which she is eligible because she has no known criminal record, her public defender said. If completed successfully, her charges could be erased.

"That's pretty much just a slap on the wrist," said Austin Haughwout, the 17-year-old Clinton resident who was flying the drone that day last month.

Haughwout said in an interview on Thursday that he was recording "cool video of the landscape" that day at heights above 50 feet, too high to invade anyone's privacy. He uses his radio-controlled quadcopter in public places, he said.

Haughwout said he believed that if a man had assaulted a woman, the court penalty would have been more severe.

"If a guy assaults a girl, he'd be sitting in jail waiting for his court date," said Haughwout, whose scrapes and bruises from the dustup — which he recorded with his cellphone — have since healed.

Mears was charged with third-degree assault and breach of peace after the May 12 clash at Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison. She was released on a written promise to appear in court, where she was arraigned May 28.

On Thursday, Judge Steven Ecker scheduled her next court date for July 9 and issued a no-contact order prohibiting her from being in touch with Haughwout.

Mears declined to comment outside the courtroom.

The story of the confrontation went national after a video purportedly showing the assault was posted to YouTube and LiveLeak. The video, which Haughwout said he took with his phone, shows a woman pulling on the neck of his shirt and clawing at his face while swearing at him and calling him a "little pervert."

Haughwout called police.

Earlier, it was Mears who called police. She had phoned the emergency dispatch center of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to report that someone was flying a remote-controlled aircraft with a camera on it over the beach. An environmental conservation, or EnCon officer, called her back but she didn't answer.

When she returned his call, she said she had been assaulted by the person who had been flying the drone, police said.

Both EnCon and Madison police responded, and police arrested Mears after a short investigation. No charges were filed against Haughwout.

"Though [Haughwout] may have hit Mears at some point in the incident, it appeared to be while he was defending himself and attempting to get away from the attack," EnCon Officer Robert Monday wrote in his report.

In a phone interview Thursday, one day after he graduated from The Morgan School — Clinton's high school — Haughwout said Mears had taken a picture of him that day and tried to take his batteries. She called the police, he said, and "she gets off the phone with the cops and she walks over and attacks me."

He thinks he, too, would have been arrested had he not recorded the confrontation.

Haughwout, who plans to study mechanical engineering at Central Connecticut State University, said he flew the drone over the beach once more since the incident, for an interview with the TV show "Inside Edition."

Asked if he will fly it again at Hammonasset this summer, he said, "Probably."