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Drugs, intimidation, promises of protection in exchange for sex.

That was the picture painted Monday of the Youth Diagnostic and Development Center as the trial of a 16-year-old accused of raping another resident at the center began.

Augustine Chavez was indicted with two other boys in connection with the September 2006 attack.

Chavez faces charges including kidnapping, conspiracy, harassment and two counts of criminal sexual penetration.

The three were accused of harassing another boy on the night he arrived at the Albuquerque center to serve a one-year commitment for residential burglary and probation violation. The victim said he was assaulted after the lights were turned off.

In opening arguments in Children's Court on Monday, defense attorney Daniel Salazar, said Chavez was also a victim in a prison system that didn't protect either boy.

Chavez acted out of fear of the ringleader in the attacks, who was a sexual predator and intimidated him, Salazar said.

"We don't contest the fact that Augustine didn't help (the victim) in his time of need," Salazar said. But his client "acted at all times for his own safety and nothing more," he said.

The prosecutors "won't prove Augustine Chavez committed a crime," Salazar said. "Several witnesses will tell you when this incident began, Augustine Chavez was asleep."

Salazar said the four roommates, including the victim, partied together in their room, smoked marijuana and snorted prescription medications.

The ringleader, Darnyle Pioche, was "sweet talking" the victim, promising him protection from others in the facility in exchange for a sexual act, Salazar said.

"Maybe I'll give you my new shoes, too," Pioche told the victim, Salazar said.

Salazar said Pioche also forced the victim to perform the same act on the others in the room so that no one would tell what happened.

The YDDC guard station was just 15 feet — the distance of a basketball free throw — from the door to the boys' room, the defense attorney said.

"One of the guards went over there to shut them up because they were giggling," Salazar said.

Jurors also heard from the victim in the case, the first prosecution witness Monday.

Children's Court Judge John Romero honored prosecutor Nancy Neary's request to protect the boy from further emotional harm and embarrassment by closing the courtroom to the public while he testified.

Neary told the jury the victim was locked in a room with three other boys and then sexually assaulted.

"The facts in this case are as raw as you can imagine," she told the jury.

Neary said the victim had no intention of squealing on his roommates but when he needed a medical exam, he told the staff what happened two days later.

"The nurse will tell of his injuries," she said.

The victim "was unprepared for the realities of YDDC" and was "easy prey for his roommates," Neary said.

The incident at the center on Edith Boulevard Northeast brought attention to safety issues in the state's juvenile justice system and led to a lawsuit against the state by the victim's family.

The victim's mother said she settled the lawsuit and that a trust of about $150,000 was set up for her son. She claimed the state failed to protect her son. YDDC officials denied the allegations.

Since then, the state Children Youth and Families Department has implemented a number of new procedures and safety measures.

Pioche has entered a no-contest plea to two counts of criminal sexual penetration and one count of kidnapping in the case and is awaiting an amenability hearing to determine if he will be sentenced as an adult.

Another defendant, Adam Landon, 15, who admitted to one count of first-degree kidnapping, has agreed to be a prosecution witness. He is expected to testify today or Wednesday.

Landon is serving a juvenile sentence until the age of 21 for his role in the incident.