Trial of Teacher Accused of Sex With Minor Opens

Montebello high school teacher Harry C. Manos paid a 17-year-old male hitchhiker for sex acts during a cross-country automobile trip and afterward, when the boy had moved into the teacher’s home in Alhambra, a prosecutor said during opening arguments in Manos’ trial.

But defense attorney Charles T. Mathews told the Pasadena Superior Court panel that the teen-ager made up the allegations. The youth was angry after Manos forced him to obtain mental health counseling following a suicide attempt, Matthews said.

Manos is charged with three counts of oral copulation with a minor.

When he was arrested last Dec. 21, police found a jar containing severed male genitals at his home. Manos’ attorney said that it was a gag gift and that the genitals were from a medical school cadaver. A judge ruled that the jar and its contents are not admissible as evidence.