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LOS ANGELES — A young man who heard the fatal dog attack on Diane Whipple testified Thursday he thought it was a rape or domestic violence when screams echoed through a stairwell of a San Francisco apartment building. 

“I heard the dog barking throughout the whole thing. But it never occurred to me, nor did I have any reason to believe, that the dog was the agent of attack,” David Kuenzi said 

He followed a series of witnesses who portrayed the dogs involved in the attack as gentle, and a decision by Judge James Warren to look into whether an attorney violated a gag order by attacking the credibility of Sharon Smith, the victim’s domestic partner, during a TV interview. 

“My client has the right to have her side told,” attorney Nedra Ruiz, who represents defendant Marjorie Knoller, said outside court after the judge set a May hearing. 

Knoller, who was present during the fatal attack, is accused of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and having a mischievous dog that killed a person. Knoller’s husband, Robert Noel, faces the latter two charges. 

Whipple, 33, was mauled on Jan. 26, 2001, in a hallway of her San Francisco apartment building in an attack by her neighbors’ two big presa canario dogs, Bane and Hera. The trial was moved to Los Angeles because of extensive publicity. 

Kuenzi was a visitor to San Francisco and intended to stay with a friend in the building but got there before the friend arrived home. 

He said he was terrified by the screams. 

“I imagined at this point she was being raped,” he said. 

The screams began as a shrill, high-pitched sound which ultimately became a whimper, he said, and then there was a voice saying, “Stop, please stop.” 

“It was from someone being physically assaulted,” he said. 

Kuenzi said he ran up and down the stairwell, afraid to enter the floor where the attack was occurring and uncertain what to do. 

“I knew I was extremely close,” he said. “I knew it was a very violent situation. I was scared and I thought, ’I have to get the police.”’ 

He said he had to go down to the lobby to get reception on his cell phone. 

The defense called him to bolster its theory that Knoller was telling the attacking dogs to stop, a possibility raised by another neighbor. But Kuenzi declined to say that the voice of the screamer was any different from the voice saying “Stop, please stop.” 

“I now know there was a violent situation. I presumed it was the same woman saying, ’Stop, please stop.’ It seemed the woman was no longer screaming but was begging for mercy. It was truly terrifying,” he said. 

Another defense witness, Dave Neville, told the jury that two weeks after the killing he saw two dogs that looked exactly like presa canarios being walked five blocks from the Pacific Heights apartment where Whipple was mauled. 

Neville said the dogs’ owner gave him an unfriendly look and he turned away. 

Ruiz, who called the witness, explained later that she was trying to show that there might have been other dogs in the neighborhood that scared passers-by. She suggested that those who reported scary encounters with Bane and Hera may have been mistaken. 

Other defense witnesses included kennel owners and friends of the defendants who described petting and playing with the big dogs without being threatened. 

Kim Boyd, a legal client of the couple, said she visited their apartment, accompanied Noel down an elevator with one dog and saw a building tenant pass without incident. 

On cross-examination, Assistant District Attorney Jim Hammer stressed that Boyd saw the dogs in their home environment for only a few minutes and could not say what they did at other times when they met up with their neighbors. 

“The issue legally is whether Ms. Knoller had knowledge these dogs were dangerous. But the law does not require that they were always vicious,” Hammer said outside court. 

A couple who operate the Rowdy Creek Pet Motel near Pelican Bay State Prison in Northern California, also vouched for the dogs. 

Stephen Tornay and his wife, Galene, both described the dogs as “nice.” 

The dogs were left at the kennel twice in the weeks just before the killing. 

“They were big, massive dogs, a walking muscle would be a good way to describe them,” Stephen Tornay noted. 

The judge said a hearing on whether Ruiz violated his order will be held May 17. 

Warren, who had barred attorneys from commenting on the credibility of witnesses, was sent a transcript of a Fox News program interview in which Ruiz said Whipple’s partner was “exaggerating or lying” about Whipple being bitten previously. 

Interviewer Greta Van Susteren then asked: “Are you saying that Sharon lied about it? Is that what you’re saying?” Ruiz replied: “Yes, I am. I’m saying that....”