A Douglas County grand jury has indicted anesthesiologist Dr. Michael Urban on manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges in connection with the death of a patient who stopped breathing during what was described as a routine cataract procedure at an outpatient Lone Tree surgery center in 2023. The indictment pulls old details from a settled civil lawsuit back into the spotlight and now puts criminal scrutiny on what happened inside that operating room. Authorities have also issued a warrant for Urban's arrest as the case moves into the county criminal system.
According to 9News, the grand jury returned the indictment after reviewing depositions and records tied to the Writer family’s lawsuit. The filing lists counts of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide and states that prosecutors presented evidence aimed at showing failures in monitoring and response during the short procedure. Court filings cited by local reporters also show that a warrant for Urban’s arrest was issued alongside the indictment.
Background on the 2023 operation
The patient, 56-year-old Bart Writer, went in for a brief outpatient cataract operation on Feb. 3, 2023, at InSight Surgery Center in Lone Tree and was later pronounced dead after being taken to a nearby hospital. Reporting by The Independent and local TV investigations found the family was initially told the procedure had been routine until staff noticed abnormal vital signs. The Writers later filed a civil suit alleging that their loved one’s drop in oxygen went unnoticed during the operation.
Depositions filed with the family’s lawsuit state that members of the operating team admitted they sometimes played a game they called “music bingo” while working and that audible alarms that could have warned of falling oxygen were turned down or off. The local television investigation that first brought those allegations into public view highlighted deposition excerpts and internal notes that are now cited in court records. The civil case settled last year, but prosecutors say the new criminal filing rests on that same underlying evidence.
What the charges mean under Colorado law
Under Colorado statute, manslaughter is treated more severely than criminally negligent homicide and carries stiffer penalties. Legal summaries describe manslaughter as a Class 4 felony, while criminally negligent homicide is typically a Class 5 felony. Sentencing ranges depend on the specific statute and a judge’s discretion, but the felony classifications signal that prosecutors believe the conduct crossed the line from civil negligence into criminal behavior. For a plain-language breakdown of those statutes and penalties, see Shouse Law.
Writer’s widow, Chris, has said the criminal case reopens old wounds and has previously called what happened “completely preventable.” The family’s attorney, Dan Lipman, has publicly described the matter as one of the most egregious examples of alleged medical malpractice he has seen, according to local reporting. Those comments helped keep attention on the case as prosecutors reexamined the record.
Doctor’s status and public records
Public provider registries list a Michael Urban with an address in Medford, Oregon, after the 2023 incident, and reporting has tied that listing to the anesthesiology team involved in the Lone Tree operation. The NPI registry similarly lists a Michael Urban with connections to Medford, Oregon, which local coverage has linked to the man named in court documents. Any questions about professional discipline, licensure, or hospital privileges would be handled separately by state regulators as the criminal case plays out.
With a grand jury indictment now on file, Douglas County prosecutors are expected to move the case onto the criminal docket for arraignment and pretrial proceedings. Because the matter started as a civil lawsuit before going to a criminal grand jury, it has drawn sustained interest from local reporters and from the Writer family, who say they are seeking accountability as the criminal process unfolds.
