A district judge has denied a request to adjust the $50,000 bond for the Pontiac mother accused of abandoning her three children for years, leaving them to live without an adult in a filth-ridden home.

At a hearing Tuesday afternoon, 50th District Judge Cynthia Thomas Walker said since no new information was presented for her to consider a change, bond will continue as set for Kelli Bryant for the three counts of first-degree child abuse she was charged with after her children were found living in squalor in a townhouse on Lydia Lane.

Bryant’s attorney Cecilia Quirindongo-Baunsoe told the judge that $50,000 is an “unreasonable bond” and “is like no bond” for Bryant, due to her financial circumstances.

Last month, Walker lowered the bond to $50,000 from the $250 million bond set by Judge Ronda Gross at Bryant’s arraignment on the child abuse charges. Walker also left the door open for another possible change in bond, depending on new information that may be brought forward. Quirindongo-Blausoe said she’s attempted to get more information from medical facilities that treated Bryant — filing “several subpoenas” — but hasn’t yet received a response.

Besides addressing bond, the judge scheduled a preliminary exam for May 16, where she will be presented with evidence and then determine if there’s probable cause for the case to advance to Oakland County Circuit Court for possible trial. First-degree child abuse carries a penalty of up to life in prison.

Bryant, 34, also faces three counts of welfare fraud for allegedly collecting support payments from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services while the children were reportedly living without her or any other adult supervision. For that case, filed a few weeks after the child abuse charges, she was assigned a $29,397 personal bond — which requires no cash or surety to be posted. It’s the same dollar amount that Bryant is accused of fraudulently collecting.

Quirindongo-Baunsoe said Bryant will waive her right to a preliminary exam on the welfare fraud charges. That crime is punishable by up to four years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine.

Bryant was arrested in February after Oakland County sheriff’s deputies discovered Bryant’s three children, ages 15, 13 and 12, living alone in the Pontiac townhouse. Officials have described the home as “uninhabitable” and “squalid,” filled with large piles of garbage, mold and human waste throughout. The children “lived without hygiene products, limited access to food and virtually no contact with the outside world,” according to Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald.

It’s alleged Bryant abandoned the children in 2020 or 2021.

During Tuesday’s hearing, held via Zoom, Bryant spoke only to identify herself from the Oakland County Jail. At the conclusion of the hearing, she dropped her head down while still on camera.