By Shelly Whitehead, Kentucky Post
Covington, Ken. -- A 27-year-old LaGrange man faces charges of attempted murder of a police officer after investigators said he led Kentucky State troopers on a drunken chase up and down Interstate 71 last month in Boone and Gallatin counties.
Michael Linde is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing in Gallatin District Court in Warsaw Tuesday on that charge and 15 others, including assaulting a police officer, two counts of first-degree fleeing and evading police, three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment and drunk driving.
Kentucky State Police in Campbellsburg said officers arrested Linde at about 10:15 p.m. Jan. 24.
Nearly an hour earlier, Trooper Ken Vinal had tried to stop him on Ky. 35 in Sparta for allegedly running a stop sign.
Linde took off, starting an hour-long pursuit through Gallatin County and into Boone County, hitting police cruisers and doing considerable damage to state property along the way, according to Campbellsburg post spokesman Trooper Greg Larimore.
“He went into Boone County, onto I-75 and then came back down,” Larimore said.
“There were several state police cars damaged in the pursuit.”
Larimore said no one was hurt in the chase, but said the attempted murder charge likely stemmed from the collision of Linde’s car with troopers’ cruisers.
The pursuit ended in Gallatin County, though Larimore did not know the exact location.
No other information was available about the incident.