GENESEE COUNTY, MI -- Back when he was an assistant prosecutor, Genesee County Circuit Judge David Newblatt saw a lot of cases. One in particular, involving a 12-year-old girl, stuck with him. The girl's mother had picked her up from school, taken her to an abandoned house nearby, and prostituted her.



"The girl testified in the child-protection case," Newblatt said. "But when they charged her mother, she denied it," Newblatt said.



It's just another example of the challenges with combating the tragic, complicated world of child sex exploitation, a crime that is becoming more widely recognized as a form of human trafficking. It's a world Newblatt and other local officials and advocates are hoping to tackle head-on by creating Michigan's first "Girls Court."



Nationwide, about a half-dozen or so of these courts exist. They are part of a bigger movement to recognize and crack down on the commercialization of sex crimes involving minors. By establishing a Girls Court here, the hope is to intervene with young girls who are trapped in a criminal underworld or are potentially vulnerable to it in the future.



The court would flag girls coming through the juvenile justice system who are candidates for Girls Court. Then court officials would work to set the girls up with a network of resources and counseling tailored to steer them away from the sex trade.



"It's sexual exploitation of children, that is a form of human trafficking," Newblatt said.



Young girls in these cases become dependent on their abusers "Either through force or threat of violence or their dependence on drugs," he said.



To operate the program, the court is submitting an application for a $100,000 grant through the State Court Administrative Office. The office had reached out to courts throughout the state seeking applications for innovative court programs. The state is expected to notify grant recipients by Oct. 1. Newblatt said he'd like to get the court up and running this fall.



"We're planning on opening a Girls Court whether or not we get this grant," he said.



It's an issue that's finally bubbling to the surface. Newblatt compared it to domestic abuse 50 years ago, a time when those crimes were largely unreported and society generally looked the other way. Eventually, though, victims started coming forward, awareness rose and a network of support services was established.



Last May, a Genesee County human trafficking task force was created. It is made up of local law enforcement, medical professionals and members from social agencies.



It's difficult to put a number on how severe the problem is locally, said Jay Kommareddi, the task force's Public Awareness and Community Outreach Committee chair.



"The victims, they don't see themselves as victims, they don't self-identify as victims," Kommareddi said. "That's another challenge."



Kommareddi said a Girls Court could be a great help for fighting the problem here.



Genesee County Special Assistant Prosecutor John Potbury said he has seen many examples of young girls being manipulated and eventually indebted to predators, who coerce them and force them into the sex trade. It's like a long, manipulative con game, he said.



"It's a scheme," Potbury said. "That's how they become victims. Then they find themselves prostituting on the streets."



"They're broken down, they're beaten down emotionally, verbally, physically," he added. "They become prisoners."



Christina Delikta, a sexual assault crisis counselor at the YWCA of Greater Flint, sees the pattern firsthand.



"We're really just starting to label it for what it is," Delikta said, saying that many of these women in the past would have been prosecuted as criminals. Now people are realizing they're actually being used as currency in a much larger criminal enterprise.



The court could help fight this, she said.



"I'm really excited about the Girls Court," she said.

Blake Thorne is a reporter for MLive-The Flint Journal. Contact him at bthorne1@mlive.com or 810-347-8194. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.