SAN DIEGO -- A man molested three boys from abusive or troubled families in the late 1990s, including two who lived with him in San Diego, a prosecutor said Wednesday, but a defense attorney said the defendant did nothing but help the boys live a better life.

Steven Bimson, 65, on trial for a second time, is charged with 30 counts of oral copulation of a child and one count of committing a lewd act on a child. He faces life in prison if convicted.

In Bimson's first trial, Judge Cynthia Bashant declared a mistrial when a deliberating juror disclosed for the first time that he had been the victim of an attempted molestation.

In her opening statement of the retrial, prosecutor Wendy Patrick Mazzarella said Bimson found 12-to-15-year-old boys from "unfortunate circumstances," brought them to live with him, then molested them on a nightly basis.

Two of Bimson's alleged victims, Sam and Brandon, shared a bed with the defendant at separate times and were molested nightly around 10 p.m., the prosecutor said.

"Mr. Bimson would molest one boy at a time until they got to a certain age," the prosecutor said.

A third boy was touched by Bimson but rejected any further sexual advances, Mazzarella told the jury.

She said the boys didn't say anything for years because Bimson was giving them money, buying them new clothes and giving them a better life. Some even stayed in touch with the defendant after the molestation stopped and had no animosity toward him, Mazzarella said.

One alleged victim finally called police in 2006 after learning that Bimson had received a license for foster care, the prosecutor said.

The prosecutor said the boys "signed up for friendship and ended up with betrayal."

A number of other alleged victims will testify that Bimson molested them in much the same way, the prosecutor said. She said Bimson does not face charges in connection with those victims because the alleged crimes happened in Arizona.

In her opening statement, defense attorney Lisa Berman-Hernandez told jurors that Bimson will defend himself against the "insidious" allegations.

The attorney said her case will be presented in defense of a man "who's been made out to be a monster."

A boy who lived with Bimson between 1990 and 2000 will testify that he never saw anything happen to other boys who came to live there, Berman- Hernandez said.

Bimson lived by the Rotary Club motto of "Service Above Self," the defense attorney told the jury.

"When he saw a problem, he fixed it," she said.

Bimson established an orphanage and went to El Salvador to provide safe cooking equipment and toilets to people there, Berman-Hernandez said.

The defendant gave the alleged victims a roof over their heads, taking two brothers away from their drug-addicted mother and another boy from his abusive father, the attorney said.

"Mr. Bimson took them out of that," his attorney said. "He didn't perpetuate their abuse."

Berman said her client kept the boys in school and taught them how to be responsible men.

The attorney said there will be no physical evidence linking Bimson to the alleged molestations.

"All you have is the testimony of the boys," Berman-Hernandez told the jury.