SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A couple indicted in the dog mauling death of their neighbor pleaded innocent Tuesday.

Marjorie Knoller, 45, and Robert Noel, 59, are charged with involuntary manslaughter and keeping a mischievous dog that killed a human being. Knoller also faces second-degree murder charges because she was in the apartment hallway with the two dogs when they attacked 33-year-old Diane Whipple in January.

Knoller and Noel remain jailed. No trial date has been set.

Judge Philip Moscone on Tuesday rejected defense attorney Jan Lecklikner's request that the charges be reduced to mischievous dog charges. The judge postponed a hearing on requests from news organizations including The Associated Press to unseal transcripts of the secret grand jury proceedings that led to the couple's March indictment.

The couple were caring for the two Presa Canario-mastiffs when the dogs — a 120-pound male named Bane and a 113-pound female named Hera — mauled Whipple, a St. Mary's College lacrosse coach. The lawyers lived next door to the 110-pound Whipple.

The animals were raised as part of a dogfighting ring run out of Pelican Bay State Prison by inmates Paul Schneider and Dale Bretches, prison officials said, adding that the dogs were trained to guard criminal operations such as methamphetamine labs.

Schneider and Bretches are serving life sentences without parole. Schneider is doing time for robbery and attempted murder. Bretches was convicted of murder and assault with a deadly weapon while behind bars. Both belong to the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist prison gang.

Noel and Knoller adopted Schneider as their son in a procedure that became official just three days after Whipple's death.

Days after the mauling, Noel sent a letter to prosecutors blaming Whipple for the attack, suggesting she should have gone inside her apartment and not aggressively reacted to the dogs. He also accused Whipple of striking his wife as Knoller tried to pull the dogs away.