Neighbor Describes 'Dark Shadow' Over Mauling Victim
Witnesses Call Lawyer Calm After Mauling
Jaxon Van
Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, February 28, 2002
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle
Los Angeles -- Marjorie Knoller was strangely composed and "almost cold" after her neighbor suffered mortal wounds inflicted by Knoller's dogs, prosecution witnesses testified yesterday.
Defense attorneys trying to keep a jury from convicting Knoller of second- degree murder and her husband of manslaughter said the 46-year-old lawyer hadn't been insensitive to Diane Whipple as she bled to death. Instead, the defense said, she was dazed and bloodied from trying to pull two 120-pound dogs off her 33-year-old neighbor.
The real fault, the defense maintained both in and out of court, lay with two police officers who stood by for four crucial minutes and did nothing as Whipple lay bleeding in the hallway of her San Francisco apartment building.
"That evidence is very disturbing," Knoller's attorney, Nedra Ruiz, said outside court.
The testimony about Knoller's demeanor capped a day that began with a pointed exchange between the judge and Ruiz in front of the jury over her play- acting of the steps she says Knoller took to try to protect Whipple.
The first prosecution witness to testify about Knoller's behavior after the attack Jan. 26, 2001, was Andrea Runge, an animal control officer who arrived at the apartment on Pacific Avenue within minutes of Whipple's mauling.
Even as the lacrosse coach at St. Mary's College was dying, Runge said, Knoller was "oddly calm -- almost cold." Knoller told her she was unable to handle the dogs or help bring the animals out of her apartment.
Paula Gamick, a paramedic who came to the building more than an hour after the attack to treat Knoller's minor injuries, said that in the 15 minutes she was there, Knoller "not once" asked about Whipple.
Gamick quoted Knoller as saying, "I've seen this sort of thing before. I'm an EMT (emergency medical technician) -- I've been in bloody situations like this." Knoller has been doing legal work for a decade and was never an emergency medical technician but once sought to be a dental surgeon, Ruiz said.
Ruiz said during her cross-examination that Knoller had been covered head to toe in blood, had numerous cuts and other injuries and appeared disheveled as she sat or crouched on the hallway floor.
Ruiz also sought to deflect blame from Knoller during cross-examination of the first two police officers on the scene, Leslie Forrestal and Sidney Laws.
Forrestal testified that she had stepped off the elevator and found Whipple on the floor, her clothes ripped from her body, and stood guard with her gun drawn in case one of the Presa Canarios belonging to Knoller and co-defendant Robert Noel returned. Police believed the dog was still on the loose in the building.
Forrestal, a seven-year veteran of the force, testified that she had seen a "large puddle of blood" under Whipple's neck. When Whipple tried to get up, Forrestal told her to lie down and that help was on the way, she said.
Knoller did not emerge from her apartment for two to four minutes, Forrestal said. She never offered any medical help, the officer testified -- something the defense insists Knoller provided before police arrived.
"She came out of the door and just stood there," Forrestal said.
Under cross-examination by Ruiz, both Forrestal and Laws admitted they had given no first aid themselves until other police got there several minutes later.
Laws testified that she had seen one of the dogs, Hera, trot past her on the stairwell on the way up and that she had to stand guard. "I was scared for my life," she said. "After seeing the victim and knowing that there were dogs, I didn't know whether I was going to be attacked as well."
"You didn't give first aid to Ms. Whipple, did you?" Ruiz asked.
"I had my baton out," Laws responded.
Outside court, Ruiz called the police handling of the matter a "startling revelation." Knoller, she said, "was trying to stop the bleeding. The only reason she stopped (helping) was she wanted to get those dogs away from Diane Whipple."
The day's testimony began with 76-year-old Esther Birkmaier, who lived across the hall from Whipple and said she had heard her cry out for help as a "dark shadow" hovered over her.
Birkmaier testified that she heard progressively louder barking and growling and then heard Whipple screaming, "Help me! Help me!"
Birkmaier peered from her peephole and first took the shadow to be a dog, she testified. But she acknowledged that she had later told police it could have been Knoller, who was wearing dark clothing.
As she called 911, Birkmaier testified, she heard someone shouting from the hallway, "No, No, No!" and ''Get off! Get off!"
"It was loud and shrill, and I recognized it to be Marjorie's voice," she said.
Knoller has said she got on top of Whipple as she struggled to save her from the dogs.
During cross-examination, Ruiz started to repeat her performance from her opening statement last week, when she got down on her hands and knees to portray her client's rescue efforts. This time, however, Judge James Warren stopped her.
"Please," Warren said loudly, "get off the floor."
"Your honor, I'm sorry, but these tragic events occurred on the floor," Ruiz said. "I'm not on the floor for pleasure, your honor. I'm on the floor to demonstrate the tragic evidence that constitutes the facts in this case."
Prosecutor James Hammer objected that her demonstration was improper and should be stopped. "I don't think so, your honor," Ruiz replied.
"Counsel!" Warren shouted. "Excuse me, please. I think it would be helpful for the decorum of the court -- please stay on two feet, instead of four."
E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com.
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