Los Angeles -- The judge in the dog-mauling trial threatened a defense attorney with contempt yesterday for her suggestion outside court that the victim's domestic partner had lied on the stand.
"We are doing everything we can to make sure we get a fair trial here -- it does no good for counsel to go out and make comments like that," Judge James Warren told Nedra Ruiz, attorney for murder defendant Marjorie Knoller.
"You are not free to challenge the veracity of a witness," Warren said.
Warren told Ruiz to appear before him in May, after the trial is over, to show why she should not be found in contempt of the judge's order barring attorneys in the case from saying anything outside court that goes beyond describing the proceedings.
Despite Warren's scolding, which took place outside of the jury's presence, Ruiz showed little sign of backing down.
"I welcome the scrutiny of the judge," she told reporters. ''I'm very sorry only that the judge views my actions were in contempt of the court. I want justice for Marjorie.
"Her side should be heard," Ruiz added. "Especially since the prosecution has taken upon themselves to regularly appear in the media. . . . Marjorie has a right to have her side explained."
Ruiz touched off the furor Tuesday night when she said in a television interview that Sharon Smith, mauling victim Diane Whipple's domestic partner, had lied about or exaggerated Whipple's account of an earlier bite by one of the dogs belonging to defendants Knoller and her husband, Robert Noel.
Outside court Wednesday, Ruiz also questioned whether Whipple had really been living in fear of the two dogs, as Smith testified. She said jurors "will find it hard to believe that a regional vice president of Charles Schwab -- that's how Ms. Smith was identified, as a high-powered executive -- that she would allow the love of her life to live intimidated."
Smith's attorney, Michael Cardoza, sent a transcript of Ruiz's televised remarks to Warren, along with a complaint about the "slanderous" statements. Warren ordered Ruiz to come to court in San Francisco on May 17, where she will join District Attorney Terence Hallinan at a hearing about violations of the gag order.
Hallinan has already apologized for accusing Knoller of "making things up" in her testimony before the grand jury that indicted her.
The judge raised the issue before the jury was brought in to hear more defense witnesses, most of whom said the dogs seemed from all appearances to be good-natured.
One defense witness, however, gave a harrowing account of what he heard in the Pacific Heights apartment building the day Whipple was killed, Jan. 26, 2001.
David Kuenzi, a visitor from New York, said he had been on the third or fourth floor of the six-story building when he heard a young woman screaming, then dogs barking, followed by whimpering, silence and finally a plaintive voice saying, "Please stop! Please stop!"
He said he thought it all came from one woman who was being assaulted.
At first, Kuenzi said, "her voice was wild. I mean, she was screaming for her life."
After going up and down the stairs of the building and calling 911, he heard the pleas of a woman. "It was someone who's distressed, who's capitulated, who's giving up," Kuenzi said. He said he heard the woman saying, "Please stop. Don't do this."
"She was in control of her faculties and was able to talk in a normal voice, " he said.
He never found the source of the noise and said he hadn't realized at the time that dogs were attacking someone.
Under cross-examination, Kuenzi told prosecutor James Hammer that about 10 minutes had elapsed between the first screams and the cries to stop.
In arguing that Knoller is not guilty of second-degree murder, the defense has said she threw herself on top of Whipple to shield her from the attack. Yesterday, Ruiz suggested outside court that Kuenzi had the elapsed time wrong out of fear and confusion, and that overall his testimony supported Knoller's account of what happened.
The defense also called Stephen Tornay, who runs a kennel near Pelican Bay state prison and took in the dogs on two occasions just days before the attack.
Knoller and Noel had clients at Pelican Bay, including one they later adopted as their son.
One of the dogs, Bane, was a happy animal who loved to be petted, he said. The other, Hera, was no trouble, although more reserved, he said.
"The dogs were good dogs," Tornay said. "The people acted very responsible."
The defense also called Kim Boyd, widow of a slain Pelican Bay prisoner, who said she had seen the dogs repeatedly in her apartment in Lodi and that they had never posed any problems for her or her 7-year-old daughter.
E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com.
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