Unable to post their respective $2 million and $1 million bails, Knoller and Noel have been in the city jail for six weeks, facing charges of second-degree murder (for Knoller only), manslaughter and failure to control a vicious dog stemming from the Jan. 26 mauling death of their neighbor Diane Whipple, killed in the hallway of their apartment building by one of two Presa Canario dogs Knoller and Noel were caring for. The husband and wife were scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday morning -- their fourth such date, delayed so far by defense motions -- and they finally were arraigned in the afternoon, but not before Knoller skipped the morning session claiming illness, and rolled into the continued afternoon session in a wheelchair, looking drawn and grim, head resting on one fist.

Noel's morning appearance had been accompanied by a good-sized crowd of reporters and a pint-sized crowd of second-graders, who fidgeted in the first two rows of the gallery. One of the second-graders is named Vivian, and when she saw 64-year-old District Attorney Terrence Hallinan she said, "Hi, Daddy!" The D.A. doesn't appear in court for just any old arraignment, so this was a good day for a field trip.

The media throng was smaller than the throngs at previous court dates. "Maybe it's delay fatigue," one writer said. Reporters, who fidgeted and gabbed as Judge Philip Moscone spent a half hour at the afternoon session working his way through the Master Criminal Calendar, setting court dates for this defendant and that, were visibly pleased by Knoller's appearance in a wheelchair. Some days, you see, your lead just writes itself.

When they make the movie about the San Francisco dog-mauling case -- and they will make that movie -- you'll watch it, and you'll sit there saying, "Come on. Oh, come on!" But believe that movie. This case, from those initial, shocking news reports on, has given and given and given some more. Every time you think it's gone ahead and become the damndest thing you ever saw, it just goes right ahead and tops itself.

Has there ever been a more appealing victim than Diane Whipple, the sunny, beloved lacrosse coach who was once a star collegiate athlete? Has there ever been a more sympathetic grieving significant other than Whipple's classy, well-spoken lover, who by the way was her lesbian domestic partner, and who discovered that California allows spouses, but not domestic partners, to file wrongful death lawsuits? She's fighting the good fight against that law by filing suit anyway. And have there ever been alleged perps more unlikable than Knoller and Noel, who seemed officious and uncaring in the aftermath of her death?

And that was just the start of things. That was before they adopted a 38-year-old Aryan Brotherhood member serving a life sentence, before they told a court that the dogs were sweethearts, one of them a "certified lick therapist," before allegations of an unusual sexual relationship that might have involved the dogs, before a gay former seminarian and a stunning former Victoria's Secret model were appointed to prosecute the case.

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