The four-parent, two-dog “family” has horrified this famously tolerant city ever since Bane mauled neighbor Diane Whipple to death in the hallway of their apartment building, as she came home with an armload of groceries. Bane was destroyed immediately after the Jan. 26 attack. Late last week a San Francisco court ordered that Hera could be used for evidence before being euthanized. This week authorities plan to charge the lawyer couple with involuntary manslaughter in Whipple’s death. “This was more than a terrible accident,” says Assistant District Attorney James Hammer. “The evidence will show Diane Whipple did not have to die.” At issue is whether Noel and Knoller were criminally negligent because they knew how vicious the dogs could be. The couple claim they were “trustees” for the inmate-owners and not legally liable for the dogs’ actions. Prosecutors have yet to explain why their prison-cell search warrant listed any photos or correspondence “depicting sexual acts with dogs.” Schneider told two newspapers that he kept nude photos of Knoller, his adoptive mother, in his cell. Noel and Knoller denied reports of bestiality as “ludicrous.”
The lawyers have enraged dog-loving San Franciscans–not to mention Whipple’s family–with their suggestions that Whipple, a star athlete and popular college coach, may have in some way contributed to the fatal attack. Initially they blamed her “pheromones.” Last week Noel told NEWSWEEK that Whipple “may have been having her period,” perhaps provoking Bane’s aggression.
Noel calls Whipple’s death “a terrible tragedy.” “I’m sorry for that,” he says, his eyes filling with tears, “but I’m not going to change the facts to make them feel better.” Whipple’s domestic partner, Sharon Smith, is planning a civil suit for wrongful death against Knoller and Noel. But the legal system is unlikely to provide closure in a case that has left a young woman dead and posed troubling questions about this “family” that may never be answered in a courtroom.
