A sexual assault trial started Monday for Jeffrey Buskey.

He is 60 years old and a former youth counselor from Litchfield, New Hampshire.

He is accused of assaulting four boys at the Youth Development Center in Manchester.

This happened in the late 1990s.

The first case in the trial is about David Meehan.

He was 14 when he came to the center in 1995.

Buskey faces 21 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault in this case.

Meehan filed the first of more than 1,100 lawsuits about abuse at the center.

The abuse happened over 60 years.

His claims led to Buskey's arrest in 2019.

They also led to nine more arrests and a settlement fund for victims.

A prosecutor asked Meehan what the center meant to him.

He answered, "Hell."

Meehan said Buskey gave him soda and snacks.

He also let him play basketball.

Then Buskey raped him almost every day.

A jury gave Meehan $38 million in May 2024.

But the state wants to lower that amount to $475,000.

Thomas Velardi is an Associate Attorney General.

In his opening statement, he said Meehan planned to keep his experiences secret for life.

He said Meehan finally told his wife in 2017.

Meehan was afraid one of their sons might be sent to the center.

Velardi said Buskey used violence and threats to overpower Meehan.

Meehan eventually stopped fighting back.

In a police interview, Buskey denied abusing Meehan.

He said they had a "great relationship."

Delia McCarthy is a defense attorney.

She told jurors there is no evidence for Meehan's claims.

She said his room was in a central hallway.

The building was "like an echo chamber."

So a violent assault could not have gone unnoticed.

She also said Meehan has mental illness.

He has had delusions and hallucinations.

She called his story "an unbelievable story" from an unreliable witness.

The center is now called the Sununu Youth Services Center.

It will close and be replaced by a smaller building.

In other cases tied to this scandal, three former workers have been convicted.