A self-described "dog fanatic" who admired one of the two huge animals that ultimately killed a San Francisco woman testified Tuesday she tried to pet the creature at a park but was frightened away.

"The dog squared off her chest and made an aggressive stance with her hackles raised a little bit," witness Cathy Brooks said. "The dog's tail was straight out. Her ears were flat and she was staring me down. I backed away very slowly."

Brooks was among nearly 30 witnesses who have told of frightening encounters with the presa canario dogs, each of which weighed over 100 pounds.

Marjorie Knoller, 46, and husband Robert Noel, 60, are on trial in the Jan. 26, 2001, mauling of Diane Whipple, 33, in their San Francisco apartment building.

At the end of a full day of testimony from witnesses who reported being terrorized by the dogs, prosecutors read to jurors the grand jury testimony of Knoller and Noel who insisted repeatedly that their dogs never lunged at anyone, never bit anyone and never acted aggressively toward people.

"Did you enjoy it when your dogs scared people?" Noel was asked.

"My dogs never scared people," the defendant told the grand jury.

Knoller had testified that Bane, the larger male dog, never pulled her in a way that she could not control. Witnesses have told of seeing her dragged along the ground by the dog.

Asked if Hera, the female dog, ever acted aggressively, Knoller said, "No," but added that on crowded streets "Hera would bark at someone crowding me. I wouldn't say that's aggressive ... she would turn around and woof at the individual."

Brooks said her encounter began when she noticed "a magnificent animal."

The witness, who identified Knoller as the woman walking the dog, said she asked her if the dog was friendly, and was told that "the dog was questionable -- sometimes good with people, sometimes not."

Brooks said that a few weeks later she saw Noel with a similar dog.

She said Noel told her the dog "is not friendly." She said when she asked why the dog wasn't muzzled or restrained with a choke collar, he told her he could walk his dog "anywhere he damn well pleased."

Derek Brown, a resident of the building where the defendants lived, testified he and his wife were terrorized by the dogs three times -- the animals lunging at them in the lobby while Noel strained to hold them on leashes.

"The dogs continued to go berserk at us and I uttered (a profanity) and the man kept walking and said, 'Oh, they're friendly.' ... We were left there stunned and amazed," Brown said.

He said the incident was repeated twice and he and his wife had decided to report it to the apartment management but had not done so before Whipple's death.

Brown's wife, Violetta Pristel, said she never confronted the couple because she felt intimidated.

"I was scared of the dogs and didn't want to have any interactions with them," she said.

John O'Connell, a management consultant, testified he encountered Noel and the dogs when he was walking his 6-year-old son to school in December 2000.

"One of the dogs lunged at him, his teeth bared, growling and barking. Tmo (a nickname pronounce Tee-mo) just freaked. He jumped back. His eyes were wide. He was frozen. He was totally shocked and terrified," O'Connell said.

Noel yanked on the dogs' leashes and yelled something at them, O'Connell said. On cross-examination, he conceded he thought he heard Noel mutter something like "sorry," but nothing else.

Knoller, who was present when Whipple was killed, is charged with second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and having a mischievous animal that killed a human being. Noel faces the latter two charges.

The trial was moved to Los Angeles due to publicity in San Francisco.

Defense attorney Nedra Ruiz said outside court that it will be important to jurors that none of the prosecution witnesses filed any kind of complaints about the dogs.

"I think they will find significant the witnesses' testimony that the dogs were leashed and harnessed and restrained from touching anyone in any way," Ruiz said.

She also insisted that for a verdict of second-degree murder the prosecution would have to show "disregard for mortal danger," which she suggested could only be proved if the dogs had actually attacked someone.

Prosecutor Jim Hammer said that was not the law, and that the parade of witnesses relating close encounters with the dogs was intended to show that the owners knew they were dangerous and acted in disregard of all warnings.