Utah man sent to jail for attacking Ogden hospital nurse

A 63-year-old Ogden man will spend 120 days in jail for attacking a nurse at McKay-Dee Hospital Center in 2011.

Charles Anderson was charged with aggravated assault, a third-degree felony, after he tried to strangle a nurse with monitor wires on Nov. 8, 2011.

Last week, 2nd District Judge Michael DiReda sentenced the man to up to five years in prison, but suspended the sentence in favor of the Weber County jail sentence and 36 months probation.

This was the fifth time Anderson had been scheduled to be sentenced since he pleaded guilty to the charge in June 2012. According to court records, Anderson had heart surgery and was in poor health, which delayed the original August sentencing hearing.

Anderson reportedly was belligerent with hospital staff on Nov. 8, 2011. While he was being helped to a urinal that day, Ogden police officials have said he ripped wires from the monitor and wrapped them around a nurse's neck.

The nurse called for help before losing consciousness as other staffers arrived.

Anderson wrote in a February letter to DiReda that he does not remember that day.

"I do not know anything that happened," Anderson wrote. "I don't even remember seeing the nurse at the time of the assault. They had me on a lot of drugs at the time and I remember nothing. ... I didn't come out of it until the second day in jail."

Anderson wrote that he was at the hospital in November 2011 to have heart surgery.

jmiller@sltrib.com

Twitter: @jm_miller