Dog Owner Not Badly Hurt, Expert Testifies

A San Francisco attorney whose dog fatally mauled a neighbor probably would have suffered severe injuries if she had attempted to shield the victim as the defense has argued, a prosecution witness testified Thursday.

Dr. Randall Lockwood, a canine behavior specialist who said he reviewed all the testimony and evidence in the case, testified that defendant Marjorie Knoller’s injuries appeared “inhibited” and showed she was not as close to the attack as the defense has portrayed.

“They suggest to me that she was probably at some distance, at least a few feet” away from the dog and victim Diane Whipple, said Lockwood, a vice president of the U.S. Humane Society.

“In a situation where there is close physical proximity between one victim being bitten severely and another person who is close at hand, I would expect at least some redirected bites that were of equal severity to the bites the victim received,” Lockwood testified.

Whipple, a 33-year-old lacrosse coach, died from bleeding and asphyxiation in the hallway just outside her San Francisco apartment Jan. 26, 2001. She had been attacked by two Presa Canarios owned by Knoller and her husband, Robert Noel. The dogs, Bane and Hera, have since been destroyed.

Knoller and Noel, who lived two doors down from Whipple, are on trial in Los Angeles on charges of involuntary manslaughter and keeping a vicious animal. Knoller, who was present during the attack, also is charged with second-degree murder.

The trial was moved to Los Angeles County Superior Court because of extensive pretrial publicity in San Francisco.

Knoller testified this week that the bites she suffered were less severe because the dog recognized her and backed off. She tearfully testified that she tried to stop the attack on Whipple by yelling at Bane, jerking its leash and throwing her body on top of Whipple to try to protect her.

During her cross-examination of Lockwood, Knoller’s attorney, Nedra Ruiz, asked whether her client was bitten because she had interfered in the attack.

“She was attempting to interfere,” Lockwood replied.

Knoller’s wounds and torn clothing showed that she made some efforts to hold Bane back, but did not “imply that she was there for a long time on top of [Whipple’s] body,” he testified.

In other testimony Thursday, San Francisco Police Sgt. Leslie Forrestal said Knoller had blood on her face, hair, sweatshirt and hands right after the attack, and appeared to have been in close contact with the victim.

Closing statements in the case are expected to begin Monday.