Brian Christensen

A 35-year-old transient sent to a state mental hospital before being tried for allegedly grabbing a woman’s ponytail and stealing a child’s potato chips outside a Redwood City supermarket pleaded not guilty.

After entering his plea, Brian Adam Christensen received a Jan. 22 second-strike trial on charges of first-degree robbery, battery and resisting arrest.

Prosecutors say Christensen approached the woman outside Chavez Supermarket on Nov. 2, 2011 where she was with her 2-year-old son and a 3-year-old she was baby-sitting for a friend. Christensen reportedly grabbed the woman’s hair without warning and tried pulling the child from a carousel by the foot.

The woman kicked the man, later identified as Christensen, and police reported he grabbed the child’s potato chips and walked off. Redwood City police arrested Christensen nearby after a struggle in which he spit at and tried to head butt an officer.

He remains in custody on $100,000 bail and returns to court Jan. 7 for a pretrial conference.