A 60-year-old Plymouth man was arraigned today on charges that he tried to kill his wife by strangling her as she lay in her bed at a downtown hospital Friday afternoon, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

JOHN J. RILEY (D.O.B. 11/1/49) was charged with assault and battery on a person over the age of 60, assault with intent to murder, and assault and battery, for the May 28 attack on his 66-year-old wife at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Assistant District Attorney Andrius Knasas requested that Riley be held on $50,000 cash bail. Boston Municipal Court Judge Tracy-Lee Lyons set bail in the amount of $45,000 and additionally ordered him to stay away from and have no contact with the victim or Massachusetts General Hospital.

Knasas told the court that MGH Police officers responded to the Ellison Building for a report of an assault on a patient at about 3:45 p.m. A hospital employee told responding officers that she was about to go into the female patient’s room when she observed Riley shaking and pushing the victim up and down as if he were choking her.

Additional employees who witnessed the attack on a closed-circuit viewing station allegedly saw the defendant grab the victim by the neck and shake her, then grab her by the back of her hair, pulling her head back.

Another employee who ran into the victim’s room saw the defendant sitting in a chair. Riley allegedly told the employee that he knew he was at fault and that he had “been in the hospital for too long and should probably go.”

Responding officers arrested Riley, who was transported to Boston Police custody for booking. He is represented by attorney Steven Sack and is expected to return to court on June 15.