Knoller again denied parole in SF dog-maul case

by Ed Walsh

Astate parole panel denied freedom February 15 for Marjorie Knoller, the woman convicted of second-degree murder in connection with the fatal dog-mauling of her neighbor, lesbian Diane Whipple, in the hallway of their Pacific Heights apartment building in 2001.

At the conclusion of a nearly fourhour hearing that ended just before 6:30 p.m., the two-member panel of the Board of Parole Hearings said Knoller, 67, presented a danger to society if released and cited her prison record, which included two disciplinary actions against her that included biting a correctional officer in 2016 and refusing to change rooms in 2020.

Knoller showed no emotion after the panel’s decision.

In 2002, a jury convicted Knoller and her husband, Robert Noel, both attorneys in San Francisco, of involuntary manslaughter. Knoller, who was with the couple’s two Presa Canario dogs during the gruesome 10-minute attack on January 26, 2001, was also convicted of second-degree murder. Prosecutors argued that the couple knew their dogs were dangerous but failed to mitigate the danger.

Knoller was allowed to speak at the hearing. The panel also heard from three people who were close to Whipple They spoke emotionally as they told the panel why Knoller should stay incarcerated. Whipple’s former partner, Sharon Smith, as well as Whipple’s aunt, Roberta Whipple, and Cayce Kelly, the wife of Whipple’s brother, Colin Kelly, spoke. The hearing was supposed to start at 11:30 a.m. but was delayed by three hours. No explanation was given for the de- lay. Cayce Kelly said that her husband was too upset to speak by the time the hearing got underway. She said his sister never leaves his thoughts and at times the grief is overwhelming.

The San Francisco District Attorney’s office formally opposed parole and Allison Macbeth, assistant chief attorney at the DA’s office, told the panel that Knoller represents a threat to the community and has not taken responsibility for her actions that led to Whipple’s murder.

“The inmate does not consider the consequences of her actions at the expense of the well-being of others,” Macbeth said.

When asked by the parole commissioners if she would own a dog if released, Knoller, immediately responded with an emphatic “No.”

When asked about the devastation caused by Whipple’s death, Knoller responded, “I’ve always felt responsible for Diane’s death, in terms of not being able to prevent it or help do more to prevent (the male dog) Bane from doing what he did and stripping her completely naked in that hallway. But Diane seems to have gotten lost and her loss seems to have gotten lost in the publicity that ensued regarding this incident.”

Knoller said that if released, she would first go to Sacramento where she would live in transitional housing and then eventually move to Reno, Nevada, because it held good memories for her. She said she would like to work as a lobbyist to protect the rights of both prisoners and guards, work that she did with her husband before she was arrested.

While incarcerated, Knoller was convicted of misdemeanor assault for biting and kicking a guard and hitting a nurse during a medical treatment in 2016. Knoller said that she was unconscious at the time and has no recall of doing that. Knoller’s attorney, Katey Gilbert, later said that no prison staff member was injured in the assault and that everyone returned to work immediately afterward. Knoller said she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the dogmauling and she likely instinctively reacted because she doesn’t like being touched.

Knoller said that she was disciplined for refusing to change rooms in 2020 because the room to which she was being transferred wasn’t ADA compliant with the railings she needed to avoid falls. Gilbert later referred to that as “civil disobedience.”

Victim impact statements

During a time for victim impact statements, Smith fought back tears as she told the panel, “There’s no way to measure the full impact of that loss. It is with deep sadness that I share with you some of the impact this tragedy has had on my life. For years I was in shock. Much of my life became unrecognizable,” she said.

After the hearing Smith told the Bay Area Reporter that like Whipple’s brother, the delay in the hearing was tough for her. All of the participants in the meeting spoke remotely through an internet conference call. Smith said she rented a conference room for the day because she didn’t want to have to speak from her home or workplace and was ready by 9 a.m. for the hearing that didn’t start until 2:30 p.m. She said she felt a weight off her shoulders when the board denied parole. She added that she was concerned that because of Knoller’s age, the board would grant her parole.

The case became an important touchstone for gay rights, thanks to Smith’s efforts. In August 2001, she was allowed to proceed with a civil wrongful death case against Noel, Knoller, and their landlord. It was the first time that a same-sex partner was

<< Castro survey

From page 2

The survey was conducted on weekday afternoons.

“Time restrictions and business hours restricted the ability to collect data in that the Castro includes several early-day businesses or lateopened businesses,” the summary stated. “Several businesses refused to answer if their workers were queer or POC due to their comfort to give this information or lack of this information of the employees.”

Four specific questions were asked: is the “business owned or managed by someone who is LGBTQ/queer?”; “Are there workers who are LGBTQ or Queer?”; “Are there women workers who are also LGBTQ or Queer?”; and “Are there any workers who are people of color (POC)?”

“The subjects interviewed were the owners, managers, or employees of the district’s businesses available to speak with the interviewers inperson at the time of the data collection,” the summary stated. “The interviews were offered in English and Spanish. The responses were counted as ‘Yes’ and ‘No,’ and the interviewers noted additional commentary allowed to sue for wrongful death, a right that previously applied only to married couples. The case was eventually settled out of court.

Knoller has served over 17 years in prison in two separate prison stints separated by four years of freedom.

In 2002, now-retired San Francisco Superior Court Judge James Warren threw out Knoller’s second-degree conviction during a hearing three months after the conviction.

“I believe unfortunately, Mr. Noel and Ms. Knoller, that you are the most despised couple in the city,” Warren told the couple in open court at the time. “I don’t believe anyone likes you.”

“In the eyes of the people, both defendants are guilty of murder, in the eyes of the law, they are not,” Warren said.

The judge explained his decision directly addressing Knoller, “There was one time on the stand Ms. Knoller when truly believed what you said. You broke down totally in the middle of an unscripted answer and instead of crying, you actually got mad. And you said you had no idea this dog could do what he did and you pounded the table.”

In 2008, now-retired San Francisco Superior Court Judge Charlotte Woolard reinstated Knoller’s seconddegree murder conviction, ordering her to be taken into custody immediately.

Knoller’s parole attorney cited Warren’s words in her closing appeal to the parole commissioners.

Knoller was stone-faced, showing no emotion as the parole board told her that they were denying her parole. When she was allowed to speak at the beginning of the hearing, Knoller’s voice choked with emotion when she told the commissioners that she didn’t learn that Noel had died until three months after he his passing.

The parole board told Knoller that she would be eligible for parole again in three years. She was last denied parole four years ago, as the B.A.R. previously reported.

Noel was paroled in 2003 after serving a little more than two years, as the B.A.R. The B.A.R. reported in November 2018 that it had learned that Noel died of heart failure June 22, 2018, his 77th birthday, in a nursing home in La Jolla, about 12 miles north of downtown San Diego. His ashes were scattered off the San Diego County coast. t provided by the participants, as well as observations. Data collected was inputted into a digital spreadsheet after interviews were completed; the spreadsheet calculated the sums of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ responses for the four categories of questions. Then, the sums were converted into percentages for presentation.”

Participating businesses contacted by the B.A.R. did not respond to requests for comment.

Jen Reck, a queer person who’s a professor at San Francisco State University, connected the interns who conducted the research, Hanelye Mazariegos and Alejandro Barrientos, a pansexual woman and a gay man, respectively, with the district.

When asked for Mazariegos’ and Barrientos’ contact information, Aguirre stated to the B.A.R. “Please do not reach out to my previous interns as they are not authorized to represent the district or this work.”

Reck did not respond to a request for comment for this report as of press time.

Aguirre continued, “the project is complete though we may do a follow-up survey in the fall.”

As of press time, they had not responded to a follow-up about when the CHHESS report is expected to be completed. t

“On the 50th anniversary of the National LGBTQ Task Force, it is clear that the organization is still being run through the historically exclusionary paradigm that centers cisgender and white LGBTQ people and their communities and concerns,” Ross said. “This conference is not creating change – not yet, not quite yet.

“It wouldn’t be Creating Change if it weren’t a space where Black queer and trans folks couldn’t make their voices heard,” she added. “I am nothing without my community and we are nothing without our community.”

More work is needed

The Creating Change 2023 Trans Action Collective was organized “in direct response to the ongoing exclusion and erasure of trans, nonbinary, and intersex people in this space,” Ross read from the collective’s statement, flanked by the transgender activists.

The collective of transgender and gender-nonconforming activists working at the Creating Change conference met February 19, the anniversary of transgender activist Sylvia Rivera’s death. They gathered after long hours working behind the scenes at the conference to demand changes and immediate action by task force leaders to address their claims of wrongs that happened at this year’s conference.

Among some of the concerns the collective expressed were incidents of harassment and lack of cultural competency by staff at the Hilton, the host hotel, and Parc 55, the overflow hotel contracted by the task force. There was no system in place for staff, volunteers, and attendees to report incidents, among other logistical and operational issues.

Although support for visuallyand hearing-impaired, as well as non-English speaking attendees, was present and visible throughout the conference, it was made clear that more work was needed to increase accessibility and inclusivity.

An Asian gender-nonconforming American Sign Language interpreter working on the stage during the protest started crying while signing. Their team stepped in to allow them to participate in the demonstration.

“From coast to coast, there has been an onslaught of anti-trans legislation that has fueled a wave of anti-trans and anti-nonbinary violence and discrimination,” Ross said.

“Unfortunately, spaces that were created to hold us in times of crisis like this, such as Creating Change, are a microcosm of what we face in the larger society.”

Representatives from the Hilton, which owns Parc 55, did not respond to requests for comment.

Equity and restitution

Ross laid out the collective’s vision for what equity and restitution look like.

The collective demanded apologies from the hotels, financial reimbursements, future financial aid, fundraising and grant-writing training from funders, and awards recognizing the work of more communities and organizations.

Responding to the overcrowded daylong Trans Institute, the collective demanded a separate multi-day TGI conference at the next Creating Change conference funded by the task force, and alternate virtual and smaller conferences around the country. They also demanded better representation of the local queer Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, and those from the southern U.S. in the conference’s programming.

“Our beloved trans ancestor Sylvia Rivera said, ‘You have to be visible. We have to show the world that we are in the world,’” Ross said. “The