|
American
lawyers on trial following fatal dog attack
TWO
lawyers from San Francisco went on trial last week for the killing
of a neighbour by dogs bred by neo-Nazis. If found guilty, Majorie
Knoller, 46, and Robert Noel, 60, will be the first people to
be convicted in California for a homicide committed by a dog.
The trial was transferred to Los Angeles from San Francisco,
where the attack took place, to blunt the effects of publicity
surrounding the case in the city, where the victim was a well-known
gay figure.
On January 26 2001, Knoller and Noel were taking care of ‘Bane’
and ‘Hera’, two 120-pound Presa Canario dogs belonging
to Paul “Cornfeld” Schneider, 39, who is serving a
life sentence for attempted murder, when the dogs mauled to
death Diane Whipple, 33, a lacrosse coach.
Ms Whipple lived on the same floor as the defendants and was
attacked on returning home from a shopping trip.
In her opening statement, Knoller’s Defence Attorney Nedra
Ruiz made the outrageous suggestion that the fault for Whipple’s
death lay in part with the first two police officers that arrived
that afternoon. As Whipple lay bleeding to death and choking
for air, she said, the officers did nothing but tell Knoller
not to move.
Far from abandoning Whipple, she said, Knoller tried to help
her by banging on a neighbour’s door during the attack
and then by using her fingers to apply pressure to the wound
before police stopped her.
She described Knoller and Noel as models of “responsible
dog ownership” who “devoted themselves” to their
charges, including teaching them to heed voice commands.
A neighbour of Knoller and Noel, Kelly Harris, said she was
walking her dogs in San Francisco’s Presidio area in July
2000 when they encountered Marjorie Knoller with a very large
dog she identified as Hera, one of the two dogs that killed
Diane Whipple.
Serious
Asked
by Assistant District Attorney Jim Hammer to describe the
incident, Harris said the two Labradors she was walking began
to circle the larger dog. “The female defendant said,
‘Please leash your dogs. You don’t know how serious
this is. This dog has been abused. He’ll kill your dogs.”’
Harris added, “She was very insistent and she sounded
afraid.”
Seeking to prove that the animals’ owners had plenty
of warning the animals were dangerous before the deadly attack,
prosecutors called several witnesses who testified that the
two Presa Canario dogs snarled, barked or acted threatening
on different occasions.
Rhea Wertman-Tallent testified that two days before Whipple’s
death, the dogs became agitated by another dog across a street
in their neighbourhood. “The dogs were reared up on their
hind legs. Their teeth were out and they were lunging. I was
trying to hurry to get away,” she said.
Abraham Taylor said one of the dogs broke loose during another
encounter and charged at him and the dog he was walking. He
said he was able to force the charging dog to the ground.
Skip Cooley, who lived next door to the defendants, testified
that one dog once lunged at him as he got out of a lift.
He also said the dogs were normally docile toward him, but
would became “attentive” toward his five-foot-tall
wife who weighed less than the 100-pound animals.
The trial continues.
|
