This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

The City of Springfield (D) got a summary judgment following a protracted civil rights litigation. That litigation stemmed from P being involved in an industrial accident and being taken to the hospital emergency room wherein P was identified by a hospital employee as her rapist. P was investigated and could be placed in the general location of several rapes that had occurred, and five of eight victims identified P. P was arrested on a fourteen-count indictment and detained in jail from September 8, 1988, until January 4, 1989, when DNA tests exonerated him. P then filed suit under 42 U.S.C. ¤1983,1985 and state law. A complaint and three amended complaints were filed over the next four years, and discovery was done throughout 1994. D moved for a summary judgment as P admitted in his interrogatories that there was no evidence that Ds acted pursuant to any policy, custom, or usage of D as required by case law. D immediately moved for sanctions against Ridder's (P) counsel, Dwight D. Brannon, pursuant to Rule 11. However, D did not first serve the motion on P's counsel for a safe harbor period as instructed under Rule 11. The magistrate judge imposed sanctions of $32,546.06. P appealed.

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