SAPS faces R75m lawsuit for lawyer’s miscarriage

A LAWYER who was dragged out of a hair salon and thrown into a police vehicle is claiming more than R75 million in damages from the SAPS.

The woman, who is not identified as she suffered a miscarriage following her hair-raising experience, claimed

R59 575 000 in damages. This included damages for her miscarriage, for which she blamed the police.

She further claimed R16m for loss of income, saying she was so traumatised she could not continue with her law practice.

The woman’s ordeal started on

Saturday, June 30, 2007 – four days after she got married. Her husband accompanied her to a hair salon and waited for her there.

As she was being treated under a hair dryer, two policemen came into the salon. Her husband was standing at the counter. They told him he was under arrest.

The woman asked why her husband was arrested, but the police simply told her to get a lawyer. She told the about 20 officers in the salon that she was a lawyer.

The court was told that one of the officers, out of the blue, came to her and slapped her while she was still under the dryer. She fell to the ground and was repeatedly kicked on her body, legs and stomach. The woman described how she was pulled up by her hair and clothes.

She and her husband were dragged to a police vehicle and forcibly pushed into it. They drove off in the police vehicle, but the officer who was driving slammed on the brakes and they came to a standstill.

The sergeant pointed a firearm at them, asking what was wrong with the Jeep as apparently it could not start. The woman said the officer told her if something happened to the officer driving her Jeep, he would shoot her and her husband.

The woman and her husband were detained at different police stations. The reason for her incarceration, she said, was because she “interfered with the police” when they arrested her husband.

She again told the police that she was an attorney and was released after a few hours. She said she was warned and threatened not to open a case against them as they knew where she was living.

She drove off in her Jeep to her home. The next morning she received a call from one of the officers who apologised for assaulting her. As she was afraid, she told the policeman she accepted the apology and would not open a case against him.

As she had abdominal pain, the woman went to the doctor a few days later, where she established for the first time that she was actually four weeks pregnant. She, however, later had a miscarriage. She then opened a case against the police.

Judge Rean Strydom ordered that the police were liable for the damages she could prove she had suffered while they manhandled her as well as for the about five hours of deprivation of her freedom.