Prosecutor: Pontiac mom in squalor case stole welfare aid meant for her kids

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• Prosecutors allege Kelli Bryant abandoned her children and pocketed the money meant to support them.
• Kelli Bryant was previously charged with three counts of first-degree child abuse after her three children were found living in deplorable conditions.
• Kelli Bryant is currently jailed on a $50,000 cash bond, a significant reduction from the initial $250 million bond set in the child abuse case.

The Pontiac mother accused of abandoning her kids and forcing them to live alone in squalor is now also facing three counts of welfare fraud — one count for each child who authorities say lived in a house of horrors for four years.

Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald announced the charges on Tuesday, alleging 34-year-old Kelli Bryant of Pontiac, pocketed more than $29,000 in government aid that was meant to help her kids.

According to McDonald, a review of Bryant’s support payments by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services shows there was an overpayment of $29,397 over three years, from January 2022 through February 2025. Those are the years, authorities say, that the children were fending for themselves in a feces and garbage ridden condo on Lilac Lane in Pontiac, where two of the children slept on pizza boxes.

“The defendant appears to have effectively abandoned her children while collecting their public assistance,” McDonald said in a statement. “This crime is, first and foremost, a theft from Kelli Bryant’s children. These resources were intended to ensure they had the basic necessities denied to them. The children deserved better.”

According to McDonald, the children lived off food that was dropped off at their house about once a week — sometimes longer — by their mother or a food delivery service company. She said the two youngest children, both girls, never left the house in four years because their mother allegedly told them never to leave or answer the door. The 15-year-old boy left the house only a handful of times: to check the mail and to touch the grass, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said.

The welfare charges come almost a month after Bryant was charged with three counts of first-degree child abuse, which is punishable by up to life in prison.

Bryant was arrested the same day that sheriff’s deputies rescued her three children — ages 12, 13 and 15 — from a condo on Lydia Lane after the landlord requested a welfare check. According to the sheriff’s office, the landlord contacted their office on Feb. 14 and said that he had not received rent since October (2024), nor had he heard from the children’s mother since December. So, the deputies and the landlord went together to the condo where they found a horrifying scene: No working toilet. Feces in the tub and throughout the house. Garbage piled 4 feet high in some rooms.

The children’s bodies and clothes also were covered in feces, authorities said, and their toenails were so long they struggled to walk.

Bryant currently is jailed on a $50,000 cash bond. She was initially detained on a $250-million bond, though a new judge reviewed her case and concluded that amount was excessive, noting the purpose of bond is not to “punish” but to make sure that the community is safe, and that a defendant doesn’t flee.

Bryant, though, is not likely to get out if her lawyer’s comments at a recent bond hearing are any indication.

“Nobody has the money to post bond for her,” defense attorney Cecilia Quirindongo-Baunsoe told the judge, adding the mother can’t afford it, either — not given the $800 a month she allegedly made working for the state before her arrest.

Quirindongo-Baunsoe was not readily available for comment Tuesday to address the latest charges.

Welfare fraud over $500 is punishable by up to four years in prison, and/or a $5,000 fine.

Contact Tresa baldas: [email protected]