From the beginning, Knoller and Noel went public with their feelings that they bore no responsibility for the incident.

Rather, they implied that the victim, a coach at St. Mary's College in Moraga, Calif., contributed to her own demise. Noel wrote a letter to prosecutors blaming the attack on Whipple's perfume — and even suggesting that since she was an athlete, perhaps she was using steroids which also could be sensed by the dogs.

Hallway where attack occurred

The defendants's public image was further tarnished when they legally adopted a 39-year-old convict serving a life sentence. The convict had been tied to a white supremacist prison gang.

The inmate, Paul Schneider, who goes by the nickname "Cornfed," reportedly ordered a contract on the life of one of the prosecutors in the dog mauling case, Kimberly Guilfoyle-Newsom, a former lingerie model who's now the wife of a county supervisor, Gavin Newsom, whom many are saying will be the next mayor of San Francisco. Her co-counsel, James Hammer, is a former seminarian who left the priesthood to pursue and openly gay lifestyle, and they both work for a district attorney who likes to speak to the press but who also has a few legal skeletons in the closet of his own.

Paul "Cornfed" Schneider

Add to the mix the victim's lover, Sharon Smith, who is being hailed as a heroine for the strides she's making in the gay rights arena. Shortly after Whipple's death, Smith filed a wrongful death suit against Noel and Knoller. The case has raised larger legal issues since domestic partners do not have the same right to bring wrongful death suits as heterosexual couples. Her efforts led to a landmark legal ruling in California.

And though tawdry allegations that the defendants have been involved sexually with Schneider or even the dogs will not be heard by the jury because of lack of evidence, it certainly shows the complexity of a case that jurors will have to decide.

So many San Francisco residents were familiar with the case that presiding Judge James Warren — grandson of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren — granted a change of venue.

An independent survey commissioned by the defense found that more than a whopping 97 percent of San Francisco residents were familiar with the case — and of them, more than 70 percent had already decided that Noel and Knoller were guilty or probably guilty.

The case was moved to Los Angeles, where the quest to find a panel of 12 jurors and six alternates began on January 24.

Since the start of jury selection, Warren has issued numerous decisions regarding what evidence will be admissible at trial.

Dogs Behaving Badly?

Bane and Hera, both Presa Canarios, wound up in the care of Noel and Knoller after the couple represented Schneider in a bid to get the dogs back from a woman who was caring for them.

Bane

According to the suit, Schneider and fellow inmate, Dale Bretches, say that Janet Coumbs, who was raising Bane and seven other dogs on her four-acre farm, abused the animals and charged that restraints used rubbed their skin off.

But according to Coumbs, she was unwittingly participating in a dog-breeding scheme that she wanted no part of. According to Coumbs, the dogs had become so wild that she needed a steel-reinforced door to keep them out of her home.

In February 2000, Schneider and Bretches were found guilty of running a dog-breeding scheme and using third-parties to do all the work on the outside. But with none of these third-parties breaking any laws, no charges were ever brought against any others in connection with the investigation.

According to prison officials, the Aryan Brotherhood was breeding the dogs for the Mexican Mafia to be used for fighting or for guarding drug labs.

Immediately after the attack, Bane was destroyed. Hera, the canine present in the hallway who apparently did not bite Whipple during the deadly attack, was also ordered destroyed soon after the attack. But the canine was kept alive at the request of prosecutors who needed her tested for evidence.

Hera

Hera underwent tests to evaluate whether she was trained to be an attack dog. Witnesses came forward to say that Hera displayed violent behavior in the past. Despite efforts to keep her alive, a hearing held on the matter resulted in her death sentence being upheld. Hera died by lethal injection on Jan. 30, 2002, at the San Francisco Animal Care and Control shelter.

Eyewitnesses

Witnesses who said they observed past violent behavior by Bane and Hera will be permitted to take the stand in Knoller and Noel's trial, but will not be allowed to testify about their fears of the dogs.

Their testimony will be limited to prior run-ins with the dogs and about what they said to the defendants during those incidents.

Animal control officers lead Hera away following the attack.

Perhaps a key witness for the prosecution will be Sharon Smith, who claimed that one of the Presa Canarios bit Whipple on the hand in a previous incident. Smith says that Whipple relayed to her during a lunchtime phone conversation that the dog bit her on the hand — and that she warned Noel to keep the dog under control.

Though testimony regarding third-party accounts are often considered hearsay, Warren ruled that Smith could testify about the conversation because it would be considered an "excited utterance."

Also admissible at trial will be testimony regarding the Aryan Brotherhood, the white supremacist gang authorities say Paul "Cornfed" Schneider is a powerful member of.

But while jurors will find out about the inner workings of the prison gang, they will not be told about its white supremacist credo.

Sex Questions

The relationship between the couple and Schneider — and even the dogs — has raised questions by prosecutors.

Judge James Warren initially said he would permit evidence of sexual conduct between either of the defendants and Bane or Hera — or "any canines at all" — if the prosecutors proved it was relevant to the attack on Whipple.

Prosecutor Hammer went as far as to say that the defendants "blurred the boundaries between dog and human."

But Knoller's attorney, Nedra Ruiz, countered that the allegations were "specious filth," and the prosecutors were using the sex issues to distract jurors from the evidence — or lack of it.

The defense lawyer even asked Warren to admonish Hammer for his suggestion.

James Hammer

Among the evidence presented was an affidavit by a prison sergeant who said that a letter from the defendants discusses sexual activity between the defendants and Bane.

The guard, Sgt. Joe Akin, also says he saw photos of Knoller topless and drawings by Schneider, the convict, of dogs fighting and of the dog's genitals.

There was also a letter found in Schneider's cell written by Noel, in which Noel talks about Schneider's request for full frontal pictures of Knoller, about the couple "inhabiting your mind and body," and statements that had Knoller been allowed to marry two men, she would have married Schneider rather than the couple adopting him.

Ultimately, Warren ruled that any evidence of possible sexual connections between the defendants and Schneider or the dogs is inadmissible and will not be presented to a jury.

Next: Part III — An eccentric pair