Mauling Victim's Partner Gets to Testify

Jan. 30 -- The domestic partner of a woman mauled to death by two dogs in the doorway of her San Francisco apartment will be allowed to testify about conversations the two women had after the victim was bitten by one of the dogs six weeks before the fatal attack when the case comes to trial.

Judge James Warren ruled during an evidentiary hearing in the case Tuesday that the conversations would be admissible, which is seen as a boost to prosecutors who hope to show that the couple who owned the dogs — and are charged with criminal responsibility for the woman's death — knew that the dogs were vicious and did not do enough to control them.

Sharon Smith, the partner of victim Diane Whipple, took the stand and described how Whipple told her about being bitten by the dogs some six weeks before the fatal attack on Jan. 26, 2001, and how Whipple warned the couple who owned the dogs that they needed to control them.

"The significance is huge, I believe, because since that dog bite in early December she was incredibly fearful of the dogs," Smith said. "She acted a different way, and it put them on notice, too."

Defense attorneys for Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller, who lived next door to Whipple, wanted Smith's testimony kept out because they said it was hearsay and unreliable as evidence.

Because the judge disagreed, Smith will be allowed to testify about a phone call in early December 2000 when Whipple told her she had just been bitten and about a conversation the two had when Smith got home that same evening.

Smith told the judge that Whipple had puncture wounds in her left hand that day, and said she told Noel, "You need to control your dogs."

The testimony will help the prosecution make their case to show that the defendants knew their dogs were vicious.

"Some of the central issues in this case will be whether or not the defendants knew of the dangerousness of the dogs and whether or not they acted in total disregard of that," San Francisco prosecutor James Hammer said.