No Bestiality Testimony in Dog-Mauling Trial
February 5, 2002
gfn.com edit department

The judge in a dog-mauling trial refused Monday to allow testimony about allegations of "sexual conduct" between two defendants and their dogs.

In the Los Angeles trial stemming from the fatal mauling of a San Francisco woman, Superior Court Judge James Warren also overruled arguments by the defense seeking to keep the name of a prison gang, the Aryan Brotherhood, out of the case.

Warren said jurors would learn that it was a prison gang and that the defendants had connections with members of the prison group, but they would not be told that the gang advocates white supremacy.

The judge also ruled that a series of letters from defendants Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel to a prison inmate they adopted are admissible even though they are written on the defendants' legal stationary.

Knoller faces second-degree murder charges in the Jan. 26, 2001, dog-mauling death of 33-year-old Diane Whipple because she was in the apartment hallway with the two dogs when they attacked. Her husband, Noel, face charges of involuntary manslaughter and keeping a mischievous dog that killed a human being.

Jury selection continues Tuesday.