Couple’s Tie to Vicious Dog Ring Alleged

The San Francisco couple charged in their neighbor’s fatal dog-mauling were associates of a white supremacist prison gang and helped inmates run a killer dog breeding ring, a state corrections official testified Thursday.

The defendants, Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller, “were actively involved in raising, breeding and training dogs ... with these members of the Aryan Brotherhood,” said Devan Hawkes, a special agent with the California Department of Corrections.

Two of their dogs, Presa Canarios weighing more than 100 pounds each, attacked college lacrosse coach Diane Whipple outside her apartment door Jan. 26, 2001.

Noel, 60, and Knoller, 46, are charged with involuntary manslaughter and keeping a mischievous dog. Knoller also faces a second-degree murder charge and could receive a sentence of 15 years to life. Her husband, Noel, faces a possible sentence of four years.

The trial was moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles Superior Court because of publicity in the Bay Area. Opening statements and testimony began Tuesday.

Hawkes, who has investigated prison gangs for more than 15 years, told the jury Thursday that a series of letters, drawings and books showed that inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison were running a business breeding dogs for profit. Noel and Knoller played a significant part in the operation, he said.

The evidence was found in both the cell shared by inmates Paul Schneider and Dale Bretches and the apartment where Noel and Knoller lived, Hawkes said.

The inmates named the operation “Dog O’ War” and set up a Web site to advertise the dogs, he testified. Bretches also bought books titled “Gladiator Dogs” and “Manstopper: Training a K-9 Guardian” and mailed pages of both to Noel and Knoller, Hawkes said, adding that one flier displayed photographs of Presa Canario dogs alongside the words “Bane--death: ruin: destruction.”

Defense attorneys, however, maintain that their clients did not take part in any dog breeding business. The attorneys said the dogs involved in the Whipple attack, Bane and Hera, could not be used for breeding because they had medical problems. Both dogs have been destroyed since Whipple’s death.

During cross-examination of Hawkes, both defense attorneys challenged Hawkes’ statement that their clients were associated with the gang. The attorneys, Bruce Hotchkiss and Nedra Ruiz, suggested that their clients, who adopted Schneider as their son, may have helped the inmates as friends without intending to help the gang.

But prosecutor James Hammer displayed enlarged copies of several letters stamped “Confidential Legal Mail,” including one in which Noel wrote that neither he nor Knoller would stop Schneider from escaping from prison if he attempted to do so.

“If you went for the door, all she or I would do was to wave you good bye,” the letter read.

Hawkes testified that in another letter, Noel identified the location of two former Pelican Bay inmates identified as enemies of the Aryan Brotherhood.

That letter, addressed to Bretches, may have put those inmates in danger, Hawkes said. Noel signed that letter, “With warmest regards and best wishes, your friend, Robert,” Hawkes said.

In other testimony, David Moser, a former neighbor of the defendants, said one of the dogs bit him on the buttocks in the lobby of the same apartment building in June 2000.

“I jumped a few feet away and exclaimed, ‘Your dog just bit me!’” Moser testified. “[Noel] just looked and said, ‘Hmm. Interesting’ and just walked away.”

Moser said he did not report the incident until after Whipple’s death.

Outside the courtroom, Knoller’s mother said she resented the prosecutors’ attempt to portray her daughter and Noel as Nazis. She said they are Jewish and were married in a temple.

“What would a Jewish girl be doing with the Aryan Brotherhood?” Harriet Knoller asked.

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Times staff writer Laura Loh contributed to this report.