Urbandale Man, Former Iowa Student, Charged with Choking Police Officer May Plea to Different Charge

An Urbandale man accused of choking an Iowa City police officer until he lost consciousness in November 2011 may not go to trial after all.

The Iowa City Press-Citizen is reporting that at a pretrial hearing today in a Johnson County Courtroom, attorneys for Branden Plummer, who was attending University of Iowa at the time, indicated that he may enter a guilty plea as part of a plea bargain. The details were not released.

At a pretrial hearing today, attorneys said they are currently negotiating the arrangement but the details have not been finalized. Judge Nancy Baumgartner ordered Branden Plummer to appear next Friday to enter the guilty plea to unspecified charges.

Branden Plummer, 21, of Urbandale, is  police Sgt. Brian Krei until the officer lost consciousness in the early morning hours of Nov. 18, 2011.

Plummer previously was granted a change of venue after his lawyer argued he could not receive a fair trial in Johnson County.

All pretrial proceedings were to be held in Johnson County, while the trial would have be held in Tama County District Court, according to a Jan. 26 court filing. A motion for the Iowa attorney general to prosecute the case was denied, and a motion to dismiss the case was overruled in its entirety, according to a filing on Jan. 26.

Plummer, who attended Valley High School in West Des Moines, was a  student at the time of his arrest. He is no longer listed as a student in the school's directory.

 captured the Nov. 18 incident, including a to let Krei go.

Plummer eventually ran from the scene, and wasn't identified until Nov. 30 based on a CrimeStoppers tip. He was charged with attempted murder, a class B felony, which carries up to a 25 year prison sentence; later, a charge of willful injury, a class D felony, was added.