BAY CITY, MI -- A married couple initially charged on the state level with having prostituted an underage girl for drugs is now facing a federal indictment.

A grand jury in the federal courthouse in downtown Bay City on Wednesday, July 5, indicted Melvin Lee Pully, 57, and wife Meleney Ann Pully, 37, on one count of sex trafficking of children by force, fraud, or coercion. The charge is punishable from 10 years to life imprisonment.

The indictment states the husband-wife duo engaged in such activity from November 2016 through Feb. 6, 2017. The document lists their victim as a 16-year-old girl.

U.S. District Magistrate Judge Patricia T. Morris on Monday, July 10, ordered the Melvin Pully detained until trial. The same day, authorities in Saginaw County dismissed a charge of human trafficking of a minor for commercial sexual activity faced by each Pully.

Morris on Tuesday afternoon ordered Meleney Pully held in custody until her trial.

During the Tuesday hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Rawsthorne stated that after her arrest, Meleney Pully made a telephone call from the Saginaw County Jail in which she stated, "If being guilty means I allowed her to do it, then yes, I'm guilty."

In another recorded call from the jail, Meleney Pully said she allowed the victim "to bring dudes to my house," Rawsthorne said.

"This was a sustained, 93 days of submitting a minor to sex trafficking, essentially for the purpose of feeding the drug habits the victim and the defendants have," Rawsthorne said.

Defense attorney Robert A. Betts said there was no actual evidence the sex acts occurred. Even looking at the case in a light most favorable to the prosecution, the facts indicate it was the victim who taught the Pullys what to do, Betts added.

The victim in question was a runaway, authorities have said.

Morris stated from the bench that Meleney Pully has made admissions to using heroin and cocaine daily and has battled substance abuse issues since she was 16. She also has a lengthy criminal history of misdemeanor theft convictions, Morris said.

For purposes of Tuesday's hearing, Morris added she didn't find it "hugely significant" whether the victim was already prostituting herself before she came into the Pullys' care or if they had turned her into a prostitute.

She added the risk of Meleney Pully committing a similar offense while free on bond could not be tolerated, hence her detention order.

The Pullys were arraigned on the state charges in March. At the time, Saginaw County Sheriff William Federspiel said investigators believed the couple had pimped the teen at their home and at numerous hotels throughout the county.

"They were arranging for her to have sex with individuals and using that money, we believe, to supply their drug habits," Federspiel has said.

The investigation started in February when the police received an anonymous tip. Hours later, they found the teen at a hotel and secured her.

Police arrested the Pullys at a Bridgeport Township hotel in March.

Federal documents spell the Pullys' surname as "Pulley," but the defendants signed their names as "Pully."

The Pullys' next court dates are pending.