Fridae

A San Francisco judge has ruled that the owners of dogs that killed their neighbour will face a joint trial after they pushed for separate trials, according to media reports.

Diane Whipple was killed last Jan. 26, when Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel's Presa Canario dogs savaged her in the hallway of her apartment building.

At the trial earlier this week, attorneys also fought whether a jury should hear what prosecutors called evidence of ?inappropriate? sexual conduct that ?blurred the boundaries between dog and human, with fatal consequences.?

The judge declined to suppress the evidence of bestiality.

While the prosecutor did not provide specifics, he asserted that one of the dogs, Bane, was sexually drawn to Whipple. He said Knoller herself had brought sex into the case during her grand jury testimony.

According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, a source said that there is no concrete evidence of a sexual nature involving the couple and the dogs although investigators initially found letters the couple wrote to their adopted son, maximum-security prisoner Paul ?Cornfed? Schneider describing sex acts involving ?the two or three of them [the dogs].?

Investigators also found ?cut and paste? sexually explicit photos involving Knoller that apparently didn't involve the dogs in Schneider's jail. The photos were never turned over to prosecutors, as they were not considered relevant to the case.

Another source said that the authorities have reports from police who searched the couple?s apartment saying they came across a nude photo of Knoller -- flanked by the two dogs -- hanging on the wall but was gone when they went back for it.

Whipple?s lesbian partner, Sharon Smith made legal history when she won the right to sue Knoller and Noel for the wrongful death of her partner. However, the civil suit must await the completion of the criminal case against the owners.

Knoller, 46, who was present during the attack, is charged with second-degree murder. Noel, 60, faces the lesser count of manslaughter.

The couple who are lawyers have been fiercely criticised for offering no trace of remorse or sorrow. Noel has been vilified in the media for suggesting that the victim, a lacrosse coach, attracted the dogs by wearing perfume or taking steroids.

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His wife, who was present during the mauling, has been similarly criticized, partly for appearing indifferent during her grand jury testimony to the brutality of the attack that left Whipple naked and bleeding to death.

The case, which is scheduled to begin later this month, has been moved 400 miles south to Los Angeles in search of impartial jurors as the case has received extensive publicity in the Bay Area.

The defendants have asked for separate trials for fear that the damaging comments and actions of one would hurt the other.

Michael Cardoza, who filed a wrongful-death suit on behalf of Whipple's partner, said the defendants' own comments have been the most damaging to their case.

?I think their ego has transcended their intelligence,? he said.

Knoller is charged with second-degree murder. Both Knoller and Noel are also charged with involuntary manslaughter and keeping vicious dogs. The murder charge carries up to 15 years in prison, the manslaughter charges up to four.