A Riverview patient with a history of violence is facing new charges of attacking a hospital employee.

Anthony Peter Reed, 38, is charged with assault after reportedly attacking a Riverview employee who was interviewing Reed inside the Kennebec County jail, where he was being held. Authorities have said Reed is frequently shuttled between Riverview, the Maine State Prison in Warren and jail because of his propensity for violence.

Reed is accused of bumping the employee’s upper body and spitting in his face, but the charges are aggravated to a felony level by two assault convictions within the past 10 years, according to a report filed by Sgt. Alfred Morin of the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office.

The new charges against Reed stem from a May 13 attack against Stephen York, listed in Morin’s report only as a Riverview employee.

York was questioning Reed while the inmate was in a five-point restraint, which means his hands were handcuffed together, his ankles were shackled together and his handcuffs had been run through a heavy leather belt around his waist. Morin said a video of the incident shows Reed lunging out his chair from about five feet away.

Reed began to fall forward because of the shackles on his feet and a corrections officer deflected him, Morin said. Reed wound up hitting York’s upper chest with his right shoulder before falling to the ground. Reed, threatened with a Taser, calmed down and was helped back to his feet to head back to his cell. Reed spit in York’s face as he walked past.

“All of this took place in a matter of a few seconds,” Morin wrote. “Stephen York was not seriously injured.”

York said there was no indication Reed planned to attack as York asked him questions.

“I asked Stephen York if he could remember what the last thing was he said to Anthony Reed before the assault took place,” Morin wrote. “Mr. York said he asked Anthony Reed a questions about pizza.”

Reed made several comments while on the ground, one of which was to call York a racial epithet.

Reed was convicted of three assaults in 2004 in Cumberland County and in 2010 was convicted of aggravated assault after badly injuring a Riverview chaplain in what prosecutors said was an attack motivated by “virulent racism.”

Reed was most recently charged in April 2012 after reportedly attacking four staff members at Riverview. One of those injured, a female mental health worker, was taken to MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta for treatment of what police described as non life-threatening injuries.

In December 2013 Reed was found not criminally responsible because of his mental illness.

Reed was sentenced in March 2010 to two years behind bars for an attack on the Rev. James Weathersby, a chaplain at Riverview.

Evert Fowle, the district attorney at the time, said the assault was motivated in part by racism. Weathersby, who is black, spent months recovering from his injuries.

Reed pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault and was sentenced during a court session at the Maine State Prison. The plea and sentencing were held in a courtroom at the prison because of security concerns, Fowle said at the time.

“Mr. Reed has very severe mental illness, and he’s violent and he’s volatile,” Fowle said. “The crime was 100 percent motivated by the fact that Mr. Weathersby is African-American. This is virulent racism combined with very significant mental illness.”

Craig Crosby — 621-5642ccrosby@centralmaine.comTwitter: @CraigCrosby4