Two alleged victims of sex trafficking testified Tuesday in Danbury Superior Court at the trial of New London-Waterford Speedbowl owner Bruce J. Bemer.

Bemer, 65, of Glastonbury is charged with seven counts of patronizing a trafficked person and one count of accessory to human trafficking.

The state alleges the wealthy owner of several businesses purchased the sexual services of mentally disabled and drug-addicted men who were recruited by Robert King of Danbury and coerced into having sex to pay off drug debt. King has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the state, though it is unclear whether he will be called to testify at Bemer's trial.

Tuesday's testimony revealed that King would recruit young, straight men, move them into his trailer, and keep a running "tab" for the drugs he provided them. He would deliver the young men to Bemer's Glastonbury office or a hotel room. Bemer would perform sexual acts on them and pay them money, which they used to repay King. King always received $50 off the top, according to testimony.

The first "John Doe" to take the witness stand was a nervous 28-year-old man who said he was 18 or 19 years old, trying to stay drug-free and working full-time at an Agway store when King came in about 10 years ago to purchase a tree. He said he agreed to go to King's house after work and plant the tree. While he was there, he said, King asked whether he used drugs and told him he had a friend who would like to smoke cocaine with him. The man told King he would rather not, but King kept coming into the store, and one day, he said he wasn't strong enough in his sobriety to say no to an offer of crack cocaine. Soon, he was living with King, who was providing him drugs and keeping a tab. He said he lost his job after King refused to take him to work.

The only way he could repay King was to perform "homosexual sexual favors," the man testified. He said King drove him up to Bemer's motorcycle shop in Hartford, where Bemer paid him $300 after he allowed Bemer to perform sex acts on him. He estimated he saw Bemer about 50 times, including in 2015 after relapsing on drugs following two years of sobriety.

The second John Doe, a 31-year-old who is serving a five-month prison sentence for assault on police, said he was in the Liberation House drug rehabilitation center in 2006 when King, an "alumni" of the program, visited the facility and introduced himself during a smoke break. He said King seemed genuine about wanting to help others stay clean, but "when I look back, he was trying to get done what he wanted to get done." He said he relapsed by using drugs with a friend of King, and soon became part of the "circle" of men involved with what he described as a "charade."

One time, King picked him up after a two-year prison stint, took him to a Hartford apartment and got him high, starting the cycle again, he testified. Bemer paid him $150 for every encounter, and it went on for years, he testified.

He said it was difficult to talk about, and he suffers emotionally as a result of being "used and abused."

"I've always buried it down," he said. "I've never talked about it with anyone."

Both of the men are part of a civil suit against Bemer. Defense attorney Anthony Spinella asked them under cross-examination whether they also are suing William Trefzger of Westport, who also had sex with young men provided by King. They said no. Trefzger pleaded guilty to patronizing a trafficked person in 2018 and was sentenced to a year in prison.

Prosecutor Sharmese Hodge had a third alleged victim lined up to testify Tuesday afternoon, but the trial broke early when he did not arrive at the courthouse as instructed. The trial will resume Wednesday.

k.florin@theday.com