This booking photo provided by the Oakland County Jail shows Kelli Bryant, a Michigan woman accused of abandoning three of her children in a home for years. (Oakland County Jail)
PONTIAC, Mich. (Scripps News Detroit) — A Pontiac mother who allegedly abandoned her children for years and left them living alone was given a $250 million cash bond during her arraignment on Thursday morning.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald charged 34-year-old Kelli Bryant with three counts of first-degree child abuse in the Pontiac abandonment case.
During the arraignment, the judge said that her knee-jerk reaction was to give the client no bond and that she found Bryant to be a danger to the children.
RELATED | Sheriff says Michigan mother abandoned three kids in squalor for years
This image provided by the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office shows the bathroom inside a home where a Michigan mother allegedly abandoned three kids for years. (Oakland County Sheriff’s Office)
Bryant also cannot have any contact with the three children, or contact with anyone under the age of 18.
“So, Ms. Bryant, I want you to understand, any phone calls from the jail are recorded. Should the court find out you’re sending messages to engage in further fear tactics or intimidation of the children, your phone privileges would be removed,” the judge said.
“The three children in this case suffered unimaginable abuse and neglect over a long period of time,” McDonald said.
Officials say that three children, a 15-year-old boy, a 13-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl, were left in squalor, surviving on weekly drop-offs of prepared food. McDonald revealed during the news conference that the boy told officials that he would text his mother when they were running low on food, and she would have some delivered to them.
This story was originally published by Scripps News Detroit, an E.W. Scripps Company.
