Did a registered nurse sexually assault an unconscious patient during a surgery in Cody last year? That question likely will not be answered by a jury until next spring.

A judge recently set a May 1-12, 2017, trial for Robert W. Guty.

Guty, a registered nurse, is charged with a felony count first-degree sexual assault. He’s alleged to have put his fingers in a woman’s genitals during a January 2015 procedure at the Northern Wyoming Surgical Center; the woman had been under general anesthesia.

Guty denied the allegations when questioned by the surgical center’s administrator at the time and he has pleaded not guilty in the criminal case.

The allegations are based on the account of another nurse, who said she pulled back the patient’s blankets to see Guty removing his hand from the woman’s genitals.

Court records say the nurse reported what she saw to Northern Wyoming Surgical Center Administrator Todd Currier. Currier suspended Guty and, after an internal investigation, fired him a few days later, court records say.

Several other medical providers were in the room for the procedure in question, but they told authorities they didn’t see anything. During a preliminary hearing last year, Guty’s then-defense attorney, William Struemke of Cody, suggested it was odd that only one person claimed to have seen the alleged crime.

“Our stance has been all along he did not do this,” Guty’s current defense attorney, Ian Sandefer of Casper, said at a May 4 hearing. “He (Guty) didn’t place his hands underneath the covers and touch her.”

That nurse told Cody police she had looked under the blankets because she and a few other staffers at the surgical center suspected Guty had been inappropriately touching patients for some time — having seen his hands in sensitive areas before.

Sandefer asked District Court Judge Steven Cranfill to prohibit the four other staffers from testifying about their suspicions.

“You will see that not one of them (those earlier suspicions) — not one of them — was ever reported to anybody except for this small group of women who were gossiping,” Sandefer argued.

Deputy Park County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Blatt countered that it made sense that the women would want to get proof before reporting Guty — who was their supervisor — to the center’s administrator.

Wyoming rules of criminal procedure prohibit prosecutors from introducing evidence of a defendant’s “other crimes, wrongs, or acts” unless it’s being used for a specific allowed purpose, such as showing proof of a defendant’s motives or intent.

Sandefer argued the other co-workers’ suspicions were inadmissible and not necessary to the case.

“(Guty) should be afforded a fair trial over this particular allegation and not have to defend speculation, conjecture and general gossip,” Sandefer wrote in a motion. “The prior alleged acts would add nothing but speculation and confusion to the trial over this particular charge.”

Blatt, however, said the testimony about the other women’s suspicions was key to the case.

“Without this evidence, your honor, the state is left (with) putting a witness on who can’t even answer the question of why she might have been taking particular attention, observing the defendant, on that date — why all of a sudden she would have pulled the covers back off,” Blatt argued.

Judge Cranfill sided with the prosecution and said he would allow the testimony.

“The court finds the extreme similarity between the alleged prior acts and the charged offenses is what makes the evidence relevant, because it demonstrates why the nurse was watching the defendant intently during the surgery and why she acted in the manner she did on that particular day,” Cranfill wrote in May.

In addition to the criminal charges, the Wyoming Board of Nursing is investigating whether to suspend or revoke Guty’s nursing license.

“That has not been resolved. It is on hold pending this matter,” Sandefer said in May.

Online Board of Nursing records accessed Wednesday say Guty’s nursing license remains current, with no record of any discipline.