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LOS ANGELES — After a litany of testimony from neighbors saying they were terrorized by two huge dogs, prosecutors showed jurors evidence that the dog owners claimed their presa canarios never scared anyone. 

“Did you ever have any incident whatsoever where your dogs lunged at someone?” a prosecutor had asked Robert Noel during grand jury testimony. 

“No,” said the defendant. 

Some 30 witnesses have come forward to say that the dogs which killed a San Francisco woman had confrontations with their neighbors for months — lunging, snarling, growling and once biting someone. 

“Did you enjoy it when your dogs scared people?” Noel was asked. 

“My dogs never scared people,” Noel told the grand jury which indicted him and his wife, Marjorie Knoller, last March. 

Knoller had testified that Bane, the larger dog which mauled Diane Whipple, 33, never pulled her owner in a way that she could not control. Witnesses have told of seeing Knoller dragged along the ground by the dog. 

Knoller, 48, and Noel, 60, are charged in the Jan. 26, 2001, mauling death of Whipple in their San Francisco apartment building. 

Wednesday’s court session was planned as the most dramatic of the trial so far, focusing on testimony from an elderly neighbor, Esther Birkmaier, who witnessed the mauling of Whipple through a limited view from the peephole on the front door of her apartment. Police and paramedics also were to testify about the bloody death scene. 

Knoller, who was present when Whipple was killed, is charged with second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and having a mischievous animal that killed a human being. Noel faces the latter two charges. 

The trial was moved to Los Angeles due to publicity in San Francisco 

Lawyers on both sides of the case said Tuesday that the jury’s decision will hinge on whether they believe that the couple knew their presa canario dogs, which weighed over 100 pounds each, were dangerous. They told the grand jury they saw no such indications. 

Asked if their dogs acted aggressively toward people, Noel testified: “Not that I can recall.” 

But jurors heard otherwise. 

A self-described “dog fanatic” who admired one of the two huge animals at a dog park said she tried to pet the creature but was frightened away. 

“The dog squared off her chest and made an aggressive stance with her hackles raised a little bit,” witness Cathy Brooks said. “The dog’s tail was straight out. Her ears were flat and she was staring me down. I backed away very slowly.” 

Derek Brown, a resident of the building where the defendants lived, testified he and his wife were terrorized by the dogs three times — the animals lunging at them in the lobby while Noel strained to hold them on leashes. 

“The dogs continued to go berserk at us and I uttered (a profanity) and the man kept walking and said, ’Oh, they’re friendly.’ ... We were left there stunned and amazed,” Brown said. 

He said the incident was repeated twice and he and his wife had decided to report it to the apartment management but had not done so before Whipple’s death. 

John O’Connell, a management consultant, said the dogs terrified his 6-year-old son as he walked him to school in December 2000. 

“One of the dogs lunged at him, his teeth bared, growling and barking. Tmo (a nickname pronounce Tee-mo) just freaked. He jumped back. His eyes were wide. He was frozen. He was totally shocked and terrified,” O’Connell said. 

Noel yanked on the dogs’ leashes and yelled something at them, O’Connell said. On cross-examination, he conceded he thought he heard Noel mutter something like “sorry,” but nothing else. 

Knoller’s attorney, Nedra Ruiz, said outside court that it will be important to jurors that none of the prosecution witnesses filed any kind of complaints about the dogs until after Whipple was dead.