Features

Jurors chosen in SF Dog mauling case

By Linda Deutsch, The Associated Press
Friday February 08, 2002

LOS ANGELES — More than 100 prospective jurors were chosen Thursday for the trial of a San Francisco couple accused in a fatal mauling of a neighbor involving their two large dogs. 

The jury will be chosen Feb. 15., when attorneys may exercise challenges to remove panelists without stating a cause. Opening statements are set for Feb. 19. 

It took three days and questioning of hundreds to form the final pool. Among the 105 remaining in the panel were people who have been bitten by their own dogs or whose friends have been attacked. One woman described her mother and a young nephew being cornered by a pit bull that snapped at them as it ran loose in the street. 

Another woman said her brother owned a pit bull and she believes the animals are not dangerous. 

“It depends on the people keeping it,” she said. “And it depends on the dog and how they raised that dog.” 

Attorneys Marjorie Knoller, 46, and Robert Noel, 60, are charged in the death of their neighbor, Diane Whipple, 33, who was fatally mauled in January 2001 when she encountered Knoller walking two big dogs in a hallway of their apartment building.