PONTIAC, Mich. (Scripps News Detroit) — A Pontiac mother accused of abandoning her three children for years pleaded no contest to Welfare Fraud on Monday, according to the Oakland County Prosecutor.

Kelli Bryant appears in court at a preliminary hearing on May 16, 2025. (Scripps News Detroit)

Kelli Bryant , 34, faces three counts of First Degree Child Abuse, with the case moving forward. She still faces trial in the abuse cases, with no sentencing agreement or offer of leniency from the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office reached.

On Feb. 14, Oakland County sheriff’s detectives were horrified to find three children, ages 12, 13 and 15, living in squalor and abandoned in a Pontiac home for four to five years.

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