Teacher Returns to Classroom After Molestation Trial : Accusations: Charges related to educator’s relationship with a 17-year-old boy were dropped after a mistrial. But not everyone believes he is innocent.

Harry Christ Manos, a nationally respected science teacher at a Montebello high school, spent last Christmas Day--his 50th birthday--in the Alhambra City Jail, accused of murder.

The murder allegations, stemming from a jar of severed male genitals found in his Alhambra home, were soon dropped.

But Manos’ legal nightmare did not end until Oct. 9, when a Pasadena Superior Court judge dismissed charges that he sexually molested a 17-year-old Utah boy who had lived with the teacher.

Manos is now back at Schurr High School in Montebello--teaching science, physics and calculus--his court ordeal rarely mentioned.

Recently, Manos said, he told one inquisitive student:

“Yes, I spent a few days in jail. But I didn’t do any of those things, or I wouldn’t be allowed back in the classroom.”

Recalling the encounter, the teacher said: “I kind of smiled at her, waiting for the next question. She just said, ‘Oh, good,’ and went back to her seat.”

But few of the questions raised about Manos over the past year have been resolved that easily.

A mistrial was declared after the jury deadlocked, 10 to 2, in favor of acquittal. Still, the police investigator who handled the case and the prosecutor who called him “Dirty Harry” have not changed their minds about Manos’ guilt.

Dozens of fellow faculty members and former students who showed him unwavering support and donated to his defense fund have not changed their minds either.

“I believe in Harry,” said Ella Wing, a college counselor at Schurr. “I’ve worked with him for over 20 years and clearly saw that he was innocent.”

Over the past year, Wing helped raised more than $10,000 for Manos’ legal bills.

“The response was overwhelming,” she said. “One of his former students contributed $5,000.”

Since Manos’ returned to Schurr in late October, not one of his students has asked for a different teacher, Principal James D. Douglas said. One anonymous caller complained about Manos’ reinstatement; otherwise, Douglas said, he has not heard from any concerned parents. Manos recently agreed to be interviewed, first in his lawyer’s office and later in his classroom. As a condition, however, he declined to discuss the items that authorities seized from his house, including the genitals and sexual publications.

During his physics class recently, Manos was using a ballistic pendulum and two spring-loaded carts to teach students about velocity. The teacher livened up his lecture with references to “Road Runner” cartoons and the “Murder, She Wrote” television series. He smiled when several students caught a math error on the blackboard.

“I just wanted to see if you were awake,” he said.

After class, several students praised Manos’ teaching skills. But they acknowledged that other classmates have made derisive remarks behind the teacher’s back.

“Whether or not he was guilty, the rumors will always be there,” said Yang Lim, 17, of Monterey Park. “He’s going to have to live with that.”

“It was a personal matter and should not have been blown out of proportion,” said Stan Ahn, 16, of Montebello. “I don’t think he was guilty of doing anything wrong. I still respect him as a teacher and as a person.”

Despite the campus gossip, Manos said he has never considered moving to a new school or city.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “So why should I turn tail and run? People who know me know I’m a fighter.”

Manos was born in Canton, Ohio, but has lived in the Los Angeles area since he was 4. He was a debate team medalist at John Marshall High School in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles. He attended Cal State Los Angeles, earning degrees in physics, math and English. He has had articles published in education journals and has received teaching awards at the state and national levels.

Manos was driving to a physics conference in Minneapolis in June, 1990, when he picked up a 17-year-old hitchhiker near Las Vegas. The teacher took the boy, who said he did not get along with his parents, on the cross-country trip.

Eventually, after obtaining written permission from the parents, Manos gave the teen-ager a room in his home and enrolled him at Schurr.

Last December, the boy was placed in a treatment center after swallowing 20 pain reliever tablets in an apparent suicide attempt. While at the center, the boy told a counselor that Manos had molested him. The allegations were reported to Alhambra police, who arrested the teacher and searched his home, seizing the severed genitals and pornography.

“I thought the handling by the Alhambra police was abominable,” Manos said. “Instead of recognizing that they had an emotionally disturbed kid who needed help, they carte blanche arrested me in front of my house.”

At the police station, Manos said, officers and other employees called him a child molester and asked in a snide manner whether he had AIDS.

Alhambra police Detective Bruce Dow said suspected sex offenders are usually arrested as soon as officers find probable cause because “delaying enforcement in those types of crimes could put someone in jeopardy.”

He said he was not present when Manos was booked and could not comment on the teacher’s allegations about the jail staff.

But Dow, who was present during most of Manos’ trial, said he has no second thoughts about arresting Manos on suspicion of molestation.

“Based on the information I obtained during my investigation, I still believe it did occur,” the detective said.

Although the district attorney’s office filed molestation charges, the murder allegations were dropped after Manos’ lawyer said the contents of the jar came from a cadaver and were a “gag gift” from a friend, a medical student.

While waiting for a judge to reduce his initial $1-million bail, Manos spent 17 days in Los Angeles County Jail.

Because of the high bail, he said he was initially housed with suspected murderers and drug dealers who taunted him and yelled obscenities. One prisoner passed around a noose fashioned from string, indicating that other inmates could hang Manos and make it look like a suicide.

“They took the attitude that the only person lower than them would be a child molester,” Manos said.

After complaining to jailers, Manos said he was moved to another cell, where passing prisoners often doused him with hot coffee during their exercise breaks.

The teacher was later released on $22,500 bail, put up by his father.

While awaiting trial, Manos did household repairs and studied Japanese and Spanish.

“I was losing sleep until the trial started,” he said. “Then I was sleeping good because we were fighting back.”

During the trial, Manos’ attorney, Charles T. Mathews, attacked the boy’s credibility. At one point the attorney showed that the boy was apparently in Las Vegas at the time he claimed the teacher had molested him. The jurors who voted for acquittal said they were troubled by inconsistencies in the teen-ager’s testimony.

The district attorney’s office chose not to seek a second trial.

“We couldn’t represent to the court that we would be able to get a more favorable result--a guilty verdict--based on the evidence the court would allow in,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Amy Suehiro said.

She said the outcome might have been different if Judge Janice Claire Croft had allowed her to tell the jurors about the items seized from Manos’ home.

“They didn’t get the whole picture,” the prosecutor said.

Croft allowed jurors to see pornographic material that the boy claimed Manos had shown him. But the judge ruled that the jar and other materials not mentioned by the boy were irrelevant.

Nevertheless, the initial seizure of the jar was widely reported by the media. Manos complained that some news accounts were inaccurate, and many described only the initial charges.

“That’s the only thing the public gets a chance to see,” he said. “That’s not the time for your defense, so they assume you are guilty. . . .

“The media focused on the sensational allegations--period.”

“Who puts back this man’s privacy?” Mathews asked. “Because of the evidence and the way the police handled the investigation, the man’s private life is destroyed.”

Manos said he is pleased to be back in the classroom. But he plans to be more cautious about helping youngsters on the outside.

“I can’t live in fear,” he said. “But I will be more careful about helping people by taking them into my home. I’m not going to do that again.”