LOGANSPORT — A woman who took police on a 19-minute chase across two Indiana counties and then crashed into a state trooper's police car is out of the hospital and facing charges.
According to Cass County court records, 36-year-old Melissa Smith, who lives outside Logansport, faces one count of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, two counts of resisting law enforcement and one count of reckless driving.
The charges were filed in Cass County because the chase began there. Additional charges may may eventually come in Carroll county, where the incident ended.
According to a public information officer for the Indiana State Police, officers from the Cass County Sheriff's Department tried pull over Smith when they saw her minivan weaving from lane to lane on State Road 35 near State Road 24, just before 1 a.m. Tuesday.
What followed, according to ISP, was a 19-minute chase into Carroll County. It ended when Smith's vehicle slammed into a marked state police cruiser driven by ISP Trooper Andrew Smith. Smith had pulled off the road to prepare stop sticks in an effort to stop the van. He was not hurt, but just missed being struck by the van.
Preliminary evidence released by investigators indicates Melissa Smith intentionally crashed into the police car. Pictures from the scene showed heavy front-end damage to the van and significant rear-end damage to the trooper's car.
