Dog Caretakers Allegedly Mocked
Victim
Grand Jury Testimony Reveals Victim's
Fear of Canines
The Associated Press
S A N F R A N C I S C O, Sept. 19
The woman who was mauled to death by two dogs had been mocked earlier by one of
the animals' caretakers as "a timorous little mousy blonde" who "almost has a
coronary" at the sight of the animals, a grand jury transcript showed.
The quotations in a letter by attorney
Robert Noel were among nearly 1,000 pages of testimony released Tuesday into the
death of Diane Whipple.
Whipple, 33, was attacked by the dogs
near her apartment door on Jan. 26. The animals lived down the hall with their
caretakers, Noel and his wife, Marjorie Knoller, also an attorney.
Knoller was charged with second-degree
murder, and both she and Noel were charged with involuntary manslaughter and
keeping a mischievous dog. Knoller faces stiffer charges because she was in the
hallway during the entire attack. Both are in jail on $1 million bail.
The couple were allegedly keeping the
Presa Canario-mastiffs a male named Bane and a female named Hera for two
Pelican Bay State Prison inmates, Paul John Schneider and Dale Bretches. Both
are serving life sentences and have been described as white supremacists.
Letter Describes Encounter With Victim
About two weeks before the attack, Noel
wrote Schneider about an encounter with Whipple, who at 110 pounds was lighter
than either dog.
"This morning's was an interesting walk,"
he wrote, according to grand jury testimony. "Getting used to the jailbreak
approach the kids [dogs] have, break from the door like horses out of the
starting gate
Elevator comes, hopefully with no one in otherwise they will
knock them down rushing in. As soon as the door opens at six [the sixth floor]
one of our newer neighbors, a timorous little mousy blonde who weighs less than
Hera, is met by the dynamic duo exiting and almost has a coronary."
"Who's that?" prosecutor James Hammer
asked.
"That's Miss Whipple," Noel answered.
"Are you concerned that she almost had a
coronary at the time?" Hammer continued.
"Not particularly, no," Noel replied.
"Did you apologize to her?" Hammer asked. "No, not at all. I asked her to step
back and we walked to the side."
Noel said repeatedly that people weren't
afraid of the dogs, but also testified that he lost control of one or both of
them several times. He also had several run-ins with people on the street who
thought the dogs should be better restrained.
Loose Definition of 'Control'
Knoller also refused to say that she did
not have control of Bane, even as the dog dragged her 50 feet down the hallway
toward Whipple's apartment moments before the mauling began.
"Your definition is that if he's dragging
you down the hallway and then knocking you to your knees and dragging you on
your face, is that control, in your opinion?" Hammer asked.
"Yes," Knoller answered.
Whipple, a college lacrosse coach, was
attacked after returning from grocery shopping. The death spurred widespread
outrage and calls for stronger curbs on dogs in the city.
The animals were raised as part of a
dog-breeding business the two inmates ran out of the prison. The inmates wanted
outside partners to train them as attack dogs, said the Corrections Department,
which closed down the business. San Francisco prosecutors found no evidence that
Bane and Hera were trained to be vicious, but say they believe Knoller and Noel
knew the dogs were dangerous.
Authorities put Bane down soon after the
attack; Noel and Knoller have thus far succeeded in keeping Hera alive.
Hours after the attack, Noel wrote
Schneider and Bretches a three-page letter.
"There's no way to ease into this," he
said. "Bane is dead as is one of our neighbors."
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According to police affidavits, witness
statements, and other information released Thursday evening, Marjorie Knoller
and Robert Noel's two presa Canario mastiffs had twice attacked a blind woman
and a guide dog, and had bitten numerous other people.
The two animals, 120-pound Bane and 113-pound Hera, attacked
and killed the couple's neighbor Diane Whipple on Jan. 26 in a hallway outside
her apartment.
Did Sex
Abuse Spur Deadly Attack?
The documents also include a letter, described as being
written by either Knoller or Noel, discussing sexual activity between the couple
and the male dog, Bane.
Investigators were looking into the possibility that sexual
abuse of the animals may have spurred the attack on Whipple, a 33-year-old
lacrosse coach.
Neither Knoller nor Noel has been charged with sexual
assault on the animals.
The couple, who are both attorneys, has claimed the pets had
not been violent before the incident. Noel wrote a letter to prosecutors blaming
Whipple for the attack.
San Francisco attorney George Walker, who has said he will
likely represent Knoller, said today he urged the couple not to talk about the
case.
Lawyer:
Trauma May Have Spurred Outbursts
"Obviously if I had any control over them, I would have told
them not to go to the grand jury, not to talk, not to write letters," he said.
"Their attitude about this case has tarnished them," he
said.
He suggested that psychological trauma from the incident has
prompted some of Knoller's comments.
"I can't imagine that woman coming out of that [incident]
without having some kind of trauma," he said.
Walker met with district attorney's office today to discuss
the case, and was expected to ask that Knoller's bail be lowered. Her bail was
set Wednesday at $2 million, and Noel's at $1 million, because authorities
considered them a flight risk.
Will the
Trial Be Moved Elsewhere?
If Walker indeed represents Knoller, he said he would likely
ask for the trial to be moved out of the region, because of the intense media
scrutiny of the case.
Knoller, who was present at the time of the attack, faces
second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter charges. She faces the
possibility of life in prison. Her husband is charged with involuntary
manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison.
Bane was euthanized shortly after the fatal attack. Hera is
being held at an local animal control facility.
Maryellen Geist, with ABCNEWS affiliate KGO in San
Francisco, contributed to this report.
I Did Everything
Humanly Possible
Dog Owner Says She Tried to Stop Fatal
Attack, But Lawyer May Seek Murder Charge
Feb. 8 One of the owners of the
dog that killed a San Francisco woman said she tried to stop the mauling, but
the victim resisted her efforts and may have been responsible for her own death.
"I wouldn't say it was an attack, and I did
everything that was humanly possible," Marjorie Knoller said today on ABCNEWS'
Good Morning America.
Knoller said she shoved mauling victim Diane
Whipple into her apartment, and at least twice tried to cover Whipple with her
own body to prevent the dog from biting her. As a result, Knoller said she
herself suffered bites that did not break her skin. But Knoller said despite her
efforts and verbal warnings, Whipple kept getting up, moving forward, resisting,
and even punched Knoller in the eye.
"She came out into the hallway, which I
didn't understand; I thought she was just going to slam her door shut," Knoller
said. "She did strike me with her fist in my right eye, and that's when [the
dog's actions] went from overly interested in her to he wanted to bite her."
Knoller and her husband, Robert Noel, could
face murder charges. San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan was
initially considering only manslaughter charges against the dog's owners. But to
ensure the case is prosecuted, Whipple's companion partner has hired an attorney
who says he is pressing Hallinan for second-degree murder charges under a
mischievous dog section of California law.
"I want to see the two of them locked up,"
Whipple's partner, Sharon Smith, told The Associated Press. "This isn't a car
accident, where it happens, and you grieve and then move on."
Hallinan's office says charges could be filed
within 10 days against Knoller and Noel. Smith is also considering filing a
civil lawsuit against the dog owners.
Fatally Mauled
Whipple, 33, a lacrosse coach at St. Mary's
College, died at a hospital and was said to be unrecognizable after the dog, a
presa Canario named Bane, ripped at her throat and mauled her on Jan. 26 outside
her apartment door.
Noel and Knoller have said that perfume or
steroids possibly used by Whipple, or perhaps something in bags Whipple had with
her at the time, may have helped provoke the fatal attack.
They said Bane and Hera their other dog who
police say may have been part of the attack did not have histories of
attacking people. Knoller said Hera was not involved in Whipple's death and
dismissed numerous claims by neighbors and a dog trainer familiar with the
animals that Bane and Hera were thought to be dangerous.
"Absolute fabrication," Knoller said. "A lot
of people like their 15 minutes of fame and come forward with outrageous
stories."
But Smith said the dog had bitten Whipple
before, lunging for her wrist and biting down on a sports watch about a month
ago. Whipple was not seriously injured in that attack, Smith said.
And now, police say they have a new witness
to the fatal attack an elderly neighbor who watched through the peep hole in
her apartment door. Police say the woman was too terrified to open her door, and
that she even chained it shut in fear that the dogs' bodies banging against it
during the attack might break it down.
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A Killer
Scent?
On Offensive, Dogs'
Owner Says Victim's Perfume Could Have Triggered Attack
S A N F R A N C I S C
O, Feb. 2
The owner of a
dog that killed a woman in a vicious attack outside her apartment last week
today lashed out at the victim, trying to place blame for the mauling on
her.
Attorney Robert Noel told reporters outside the Pelican
Bay State Prison that the victim, St. Mary's College of California lacrosse
coach Diane Whipple, did not go back into her apartment when she saw the
120-pound presa Canario dog straining to get at her. He said instead of going to
safety, Whipple moved toward the dog, which only provoked the beast further.
But Noel, in his statements today and in an 18-page letter
sent to the San Francisco District Attorney, did not stop at blaming Whipple for
her alleged actions during the attack. He said the dog could have been set off
by pheromone-based cosmetics or perhaps by steroids that he said Whipple, "as a
serious athlete," may have been using.
The fatal attack occurred on Jan. 26, in the hallway of the
apartment building that was home to both Whipple and to Noel and his wife,
Marjorie Knoller. The couple, both attorneys, acquired the dog involved in the
attack, Bane, and a female of the same breed, Hera, from a woman who was raising
them for two prison inmates clients of Noel and Knoller.
According to Noel's account, even after Knoller, who was
trying to restrain the dog, realized she couldn't and threw her body between
Bane and Whipple, the lacrosse coach swung her arm and hit her would-be defender
in the face and for some reason again moved toward the dog rather than back into
her apartment.
Noel said his wife suffered injuries during the incident
that prove she tried to defend Whipple from the dog. He said District Attorney
Terence Hallinan should have looked at her injuries and "her bloody clothes
before he goes shooting off his mouth."
The version Noel gave reporters today echoed his description
of the incident in his letter to prosecutors, but seemed to contradict the
account given by his wife to police.
In her statement after the attack, Knoller said Whipple
repeatedly tried to move back toward her apartment, but every time she moved
away, the dog renewed his attack.
Noel denied again that the dog showed any sign of being
vicious before the attack and refuted the claim of the woman who raised the dogs
that she warned the couple about the two animals.
Bane was put down after the attack. Hera is being held by
animal control officers, awaiting a hearing on her fate.
Disputed
History of Violence
But an investigator told the San Francisco Chronicle
that other neighbors said the dogs had attacked other people and pets in the
building before the fatal attack. Lt. Henry Hunter told the Chronicle
that letters from the prisoners also make it clear that Noel and Knoller knew
the dogs were violent.
"The prisoners' correspondence talks about the dogs, they
are talking about incidents involving the attorneys, these people love to brag
a lot of the correspondence talks about the dogs as vicious," Hunter told the
paper. "The attorneys had to know these animals were vicious. We're not talking
Lassie here."
In his letter, Noel described in detail his and Knoller's
lives with the dog, recounting many examples of how the dogs interacted with
other people and other dogs.
Neither of the dogs showed any aggression, according to the
letter, until an incident in September when a woman allowed her "Belgian
Malinois or a Shepard mix" to attack the couple and their two dogs. He said this
other dog seemed to have been trained to attack, and because the woman did not
attempt to restrain it in any way "coupled with other information suggested to
us that the attack may have been staged by CDC [California Department of
Corrections] personnel."
After that, "while Bane had become more vigilant as to
intact males, neither he nor Hera showed any signs of aggression towards
people," the letter said. More than 600 people gathered Thursday night at a
memorial Mass to remember the 33-year-old Whipple.
The crowd filled the aisles of the chapel at Saint Mary's
College, spilling out into a separate building. Family, friends, students and
faculty members all came to remember Whipple's life.
District Attorney Hallinan has said that before the
investigation is over there could be criminal charges in the case, if it is true
that the woman who raised the dogs warned the attorneys that the animals were
vicious. He said the case could be considered a homicide before the
investigation is concluded.
"The lawyers were told that I felt they should have been put
down before they left my property, because they showed aggression just through
the fence," Janet Coumbs told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America on Thursday.
She said she was persuaded to raise the dogs by two prison
inmates she met after a friend suggested she visit people in jails to offer them
comfort.
Trouble From
the Start
The lawyers represented the two inmates, both of whom are
members of the Aryan Brotherhood white supremacist group. The two convicts
wanted to breed the powerful dogs for use in dog fights and to be sold as guard
dogs to methamphetamine labs, and planned to run the operation from prison,
officials said.
Noel, 58, and Knoller, 45, recently adopted one of the
convicts involved in the case, Paul "Cornfed" Schneider, 38.
Coumbs said she was alerted right away that the dogs might
be a problem. When she went to pick the puppies up at the airport after she
agreed to take them, a worker warned her.
"The guy at the airport told me, he goes, 'Lady, you got
Cujo in a cage there,'" she said.
She said she finally gave up on the dogs when they started
killing her chickens, sheep and a cat, and Noel and Knoller took them. Coumbs
said she made it clear to the two that the dogs were dangerous.
In his letter to the district attorney, however, Noel said
that Coumbs described both Bane and Hera in loving terms, and only said that a
third presa Canario a female named Fury showed signs of aggression.
According to Noel, Coumbs said it was that dog that attacked her farm animals
and cat.
The letter went on to assert that Whipple wouldn't have been
attacked if she had stayed in her apartment when she saw that Knoller and the
dogs were in the hall outside her door.
In it he said Whipple just stared at the dog and Knoller
instead of going into her apartment, even though her door was open and she could
see her neighbor was fighting to restrain Bane, who was leashed.
Making a
Family
When the dog lunged, Knoller prevented him from reaching
Whipple by jumping on her herself, pushing them both into Whipple's apartment,
the letter said. When Knoller tried to pull the dog out of the apartment,
though, Whipple started to crawl into the hallway, according to the letter.
Knoller managed to keep herself between the dog and the
lacrosse coach until Whipple hit her in the face, and then Bane lunged for her
throat and killed her, the letter said.
He also charged that police and paramedics did not respond
fast enough.
"During the next 5 to 7 minutes no one from the P.D. or fire
department worked on Ms. Whipple, they simply let her lie where she was," Noel
wrote.
He accused the district attorney's office of treating him
and his wife unfairly by disclosing confidential information to the media,
particularly in regard to his adoption of Schneider, a 38-year-old convicted of
aggravated assault and attempted murder.
Noel said he and his wife decided to adopt Schneider because
of a relationship that developed "as a result of working on a number of
matters."
"In contrast to the largely corrupt administration of the
Department of Corrections and a goodly number of correctional staff, though
there are a goodly number of hardworking and honest correctional officers, Mr.
Schneider proved to be notwithstanding his commitment offense a man of
honor, integrity and intelligence," the letter said. "The three of us decided to
establish a family unit."
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History of Killing
Dogs' Trainer Says She Warned Owners
Before Fatal Attack
S A N F R A N C I S C O, Feb.
1 A
memorial service will be held tonight for a woman mauled to death by a 120-pound
dog that authorities say was part of a white supremacist gang's plan to breed
vicious beasts to be sold as drug lab watchdogs, and the woman who raised the
animal says she warned the new owners that he was dangerous.
Diane Whipple, 33, the coach of the St.
Mary's College women's lacrosse team, was attacked last week as she came home
from shopping, her arms full of groceries, by a dog named Bane that was bigger
than she was. Bane's owner said every time she managed to pull him off his
victim and Whipple tried to get to her door, the dog again broke free and went
for the woman's throat.
The dog has been killed, and another dog,
113-pound Hera, that is owned by the same couple and may have joined in the
attack is being held by animal control officials while its fate is decided.
But the case does not end there.
According to District Attorney Terrence
Hallinan, the owners both of whom are lawyers could face serious charges in
the attack, because the woman who raised the dogs said she warned the attorneys
the dogs were vicious. He said the case could be considered a homicide before
the investigation is concluded.
"The lawyers were told that I felt they
should have been put down before they left my property, because they showed
aggression just through the fence," Janet Coumbs told ABCNEWS' Good Morning
America. She said was persuaded to raise the dogs by two prison inmates she
met after a friend suggested that she visit people in jails to offer them
comfort.
Trouble From the
Start
The lawyers Robert Noel, 59, and his wife
Marjorie Knoller, 45 had represented the two inmates, both of whom are members
of the Aryan Brotherhood white supremacist group. The two convicts wanted to
breed the powerful dogs, called Canarios, for use in dog fights and to be sold
as guard dogs to methamphetamine labs, and planned to run the operation from
prison, officials said.
Noel and Knoller recently adopted one of the
convicts involved in the case, Paul "Cornfed" Schneider, 38.
Coumbs said she was alerted right away that
the dogs might be a problem. When she went to pick the puppies up at the airport
after she agreed to take them, a worker warned her.
"The guy at the airport told me, he goes,
'Lady, you got Cujo in a cage there,'" she said.
She finally gave up on the dogs when they
started killing her chickens and sheep, and Noel and Knoller took them. Coumbs
said she made it clear to the two that the dogs were dangerous.
Noel sent an 18-page letter to Hallinan on
Wednesday in which he said Whipple wouldn't have been attacked if she had stayed
in her apartment when she saw that Knoller and the dogs were in the hall outside
her door, according to The Associated Press.
Could Attack Have Been
Avoided?
In the letter, Noel gave a detailed account
of his wife's version of the fatal attack. He said Whipple just stared at the
dog and the woman instead of going into her apartment, even though her door was
open and she could see her neighbor was fighting to restrain Bane, who was
leashed.
When the dog lunged, Knoller prevented him
from reaching the woman by jumping on her herself, pushing them both into
Whipple's apartment, the letter said, but when she then tried to pulled the dog
out of the apartment, Whipple started to crawl into the hallway.
Knoller managed to keep herself between the
dog and the lacrosse coach until Whipple hit her in the face, and then Bane
lunged for her throat and killed her, the letter quoted by the AP said.
Noel said the dog could have been set off by
phermone-based cosmetics or perhaps by steriods that Whipple was using, and
charged that police and paramedics did not respond fast enough.
"During the next 5 to 7 minutes no one from
the P.D. or fire department worked on Ms. Whipple, they simply let her lie where
she was," Noel wrote.
He also accused the district attorney's
office of treating him and his wife unfairly.
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