Charges Dropped; Sex Offender Released

Manuel C. Acosta, the convicted child molester at the center of a $10-million claim against the LAPD, became a free man Monday.

The district attorney’s office dismissed charges against Acosta for failing to register as a sex offender. Acosta admits he did not register, but said he was ordered not to by Los Angeles Police Department detectives who wanted him to testify against a street gang linked to the Mexican Mafia.

While living in Highland Park, Acosta and his girlfriend were victims of a brutal home invasion in May 1997 by two gang members terrorizing the neighborhood. The intruders said they were members of the Mexican Mafia, threatened to kill a family member and stole $265 cash, a television set and a boombox, court records show.

Detectives placed Acosta and his girlfriend in a witness protection program a short time later, moving them to a North Hollywood apartment building in July 1997. Acosta said the detectives told him not to contact his parole agent. The couple fled in October after their new address became known.

The manager of the North Hollywood building, Stephen R. Xirinachs, filed a $10-million claim against the city on July 17, stating that the detectives placed Acosta there without telling anyone he was a convicted child molester. The LAPD is conducting an internal investigation into the incident.

As for Acosta, prosecutors acknowledged Monday that he failed to register as a sex offender because “he feared for his life,” said district attorney’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons.

“He did not appear to be trying to willfully avoid the law.”

In 1989, Acosta, 57, was convicted of committing a lewd and lascivious act on his girlfriend’s 6- and 12-year-old granddaughters while the couple was living in Tujunga. Acosta served a year in prison, and is required to contact local authorities to register as a sex offender wherever he lives.

In May, Acosta was charged with failing to register. Until Monday, he had been held in county jail.