Grand Jury Hears First Witnesses Tell of Fatal Dog Attack on College Coach

A grand jury heard its first witnesses Friday in a hearing to consider whether to indict two lawyers whose dogs fatally mauled a woman in late January in the hallway of her San Francisco apartment building.

The 19-member panel heard evidence against Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel, who were caring for the dogs involved in the Jan. 26 attack on college lacrosse coach Diane Whipple.

Prosecutors could use the witnesses to push for a felony charge by showing that the pair knew the dogs were vicious and failed to control them.

The first witness was Esther Birkmaier, a neighbor who said she saw the attack from a peephole and called 911. Another witness was Police Officer Leslie Forrestal.

Noel and Knoller have offered to testify on their own behalf. Both were expected to discuss the items investigators took from their apartment and from the cells of the inmates who owned Bane and Hera, the dogs in the attack.