SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Newly unsealed court documents suggest that two attorneys charged in the mauling death of a neighbor knew their dogs were dangerous despite their persistent claims that the animals were gentle.

Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel were caring for the two Presa Canario-mastiffs when the dogs fatally attacked St. Mary's College lacrosse coach Diane Whipple, 33, on Jan. 26 outside her apartment.

The documents released Thursday include copies of witness statements, police affidavits and lists of evidence seized during searches of the couple's apartment, as well as the prison cell of their clients — inmates at the maximum security Pelican Bay State Prison.

Sgt. Joe Akin, a guard at the prison, said he discovered letters indicating the dogs bit a blind woman and her dog on two separate occasions, according to an affidavit supporting an additional search of the cell.

Investigators also said Whipple had talked of being bitten once before and even Noel nearly lost a finger trying to restrain one of the dogs.

Correspondence between the couple and their clients allegedly shows that the inmates were selling the lawyers' services as part of a business training fighting dogs for people behind bars, investigators said. The animals, Bane and Hera, were raised to fight other dogs and guard illegal drug labs, prison officials said.

The inmates, Paul Schneider and Dale Bretches, are members of the white supremacist Aryan Brotherhood serving life sentences without parole.

Both Noel, 59, and Knoller, 45, were indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter and keeping a mischievous dog that killed a human being. Knoller, who failed to control the dogs during the attack, also faces a second-degree murder charge, punishable by 15 years to life.

Noel was being held in lieu of $1 million bail and Knoller was being held on $2 million.

The documents were released under media pressure more than a month after the searches took place. The Associated Press, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury News had asked a judge who media lawyers said improperly sealed the documents in mid-February to make public the search warrants and prosecutors' theories supporting the searches.

A call placed late Thursday to the couple's lawyer seeking comment was not immediately returned.