A sexual assault trial commenced on Monday for a New Hampshire man whose apprehension over seven years prior precipitated one of the most consequential youth detention scandals in United States history.

Jeffrey Buskey, 60, of Litchfield, a former youth counselor, stands accused of conduct involving four boys detained at the Youth Development Center in Manchester during the late 1990s.

In the first of his cases to proceed to trial, he faces 21 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault pertaining to David Meehan, who was 14 upon his arrival at the facility—now designated the Sununu Youth Services Center—in 1995.

Meehan filed the inaugural suit among upward of 1,100 alleging physical, sexual or emotional abuse spanning six decades.

His allegations precipitated the arrest of Buskey and another former worker in 2019, an unprecedented criminal investigation, nine further arrests, and the establishment of a settlement fund for the compensation of victims.

As testimony commenced on Monday, prosecutor Audriana Mekula inquired of Meehan, “What is YDC to you?”

"Infernal," he rejoined.

During his civil trial, Meehan portrayed Buskey’s metamorphosis from a trusted paternal figure into a horrific abuser, testifying that he had proffered soda and snacks and permitted him to play basketball with a local high school team before subjecting him to near-daily rapes.

"It transitioned from being someone in whom I placed my trust, whom I believed was not merely there to assist me, but someone I believed genuinely cared for me, to causing me harm," he said.

Reporters generally refrain from identifying those who claim to have been victims of sexual assault unless such individuals have come forward publicly, as Meehan has done.

A jury awarded him $38 million in May 2024, though that verdict remains contested, with the state seeking to reduce the amount to $475,000.

In his opening statement on Monday, Associate Attorney General Thomas Velardi apprised the jurors that Meehan had harbored the intention of carrying his experiences with him to the grave, yet ultimately confided in his wife in 2017, when he was seized by the apprehension that one of their sons might be committed to the facility.

"What you are about to hear is a veritable chronicle of horror—an account of what a 16-year-old boy was made to endure," he told the jurors.

"The mere contemplation of his own flesh and blood being consigned to that selfsame place where he had been terrorized finally shattered his resolve to keep this secret."

He asserted that Buskey employed violence, and the threat thereof, to overpower or coerce Meehan, who, he said, ultimately ceased resisting.

"It simply became a modus vivendi, be it in combat or in the mere struggle for survival," he said.

In a police interview transcript recently filed in court, Buskey could not recollect his home address from the 1990s and struggled to spell his then-fiancée’s surname, yet he brought up Meehan’s name unprompted.

He denied abusing him, asserting that they had a “great relationship.”

"I was invariably benevolent towards the child; I consistently endeavoured to assist him," he said.

In her opening statement, defense attorney Delia McCarthy apprised jurors that no evidence exists to corroborate Meehan’s allegations.

Meehan’s room, she noted, was situated along a central hallway in a building that was “like an echo chamber,” rendering it inconceivable that he could have been violently assaulted without anyone else taking notice.

McCarthy further averred that the trial would lay bare the inconsistencies pervading Meehan’s claims.

Meehan has contended with mental illness since childhood and, in adulthood, has endured delusions and hallucinations, she said.

"This is a preposterous narrative, gainsaid by the documentary record and by those who were present, and propounded by a mendacious and profoundly disturbed raconteur," she said.

The youth center—named for former Gov. John H. Sununu—once accommodated upward of 100 children, yet now typically serves fewer than a dozen.

Lawmakers have sanctioned the closure of the facility, which presently confines only those accused or convicted of the most serious violent crimes, and its replacement with a considerably smaller edifice at a new location.

In the remaining criminal cases, three men have been convicted: Bradley Asbury, Stanley Watson and James Woodlock.

Jurors acquitted Jonathan Brand and deadlocked in the case of Victor Malavet, culminating in a mistrial.

Charges against Trevor Middleton were dropped; Frank Davis was declared incompetent to stand trial, and Gordon Searles died while awaiting trial.

Stephen Murphy, whose charges remain pending, saw one trial culminate in a mistrial and another conclude with an acquittal on three charges and a hung jury on five others.

Lucien Poulette is awaiting trial.