Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Mom of Boy Abused on Treadmill Tells All: 'Just Evil'

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

Breanna Micciolo is speaking about her son, Corey Micciolo, after the boy’s father was convicted of child endangerment and aggravated manslaughter at a weeks-long trial in New Jersey. Christopher Gregor had argued Corey, 6, died from pneumonia and sepsis and not abuse at his hands. Breanna Micciolo is suing New Jersey’s Department of Child Protection and Permanency over how her son’s case was handled. Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy talks with Corey’s mother, Breanna Micciolo, about her son and the trial in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Breanna Micciolo https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077643735969CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoAudio Editing - Brad MaybeGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. How do you find us to the charge of aggravated manslaughter? Guilty. Christopher Greger, the New Jersey man found guilty of abusing his son, Corey Michelo, and causing the six-year-old's death. I just want people to know he's way more than that. He's not like just Christopher Greger's victim. He was a smart, loving little boy. Corey's mom, Brianna Michelo, is here to talk about the verdict, her little boy,

and she reveals what Corey told a nurse when he was in the emergency room before he died. I'm Anjanette Levy, and this is Crime Fix. Brianna Michelo had filed documents with the court a couple of days before Corey died in April of 2021, asking for an emergency order for custody of Corey. Brianna Michelo believed that Corey's father, Christopher Greger, was hurting him. She had seen too many bruises on her son and felt enough was enough. Seven days before Corey died, Brianna Michelo had called New Jersey's Department of Children's Protection and Permanency to file a complaint about the abuse she believed was happening.

And why did you make a referral to DC PNP at this time? I felt like Corey's abuse was getting really bad and I felt like they needed to do something about it. That call came days after the March 20th, 2021 video that showed Corey running on a treadmill at Christopher Greger's apartment building. Greger speeding it up and Corey falling and then Corey getting back on. Christopher Greger had told his son he was fat. He was a six year old boy. Then Greger had told his son he was fat. He was a six-year-old boy. Then Greger appears to bite Corey's head. No one knew about that treadmill video at the time. That would come later, but too late, unfortunately. On the morning of April 2nd, 2021, it was Good Friday. Brianna

Michelo dropped Corey off at Christopher Greger's apartment. She was supposed to have him back there the night before, but she had taken him to the doctor and the hospital to have Corey examined at the direction of a DCP&P caseworker. That same day, a court had denied Brianna Michelo's emergency petition for custody. I spoke with Brianna Michelo about Corey, the trial, and the verdict. Brianna, first of all, I want to start by asking you, how are you doing after the verdict? I'm doing okay. I feel like, you know, everything's bittersweet. Like we've been waiting for like this day for him to be found guilty for so long. But at the same time, you know, Corey's still not here. So you don't know how to feel about it. Like, should you be happy? Should you be sad? It's like, it's like a mix of both.

Sure. When that verdict was read, and they said not guilty on murder, but guilty on aggravated manslaughter. What were your feelings or your thoughts? I was kind of expecting that. I knew from the beginning, you know, the prosecutors kind of informed me like it is a hard case because they can't, you know, explain to them what exactly happened that day. So they did tell me from the beginning it was going to be hard. But once I found out that they had the lesser included charges, I was a lot more confident. But I was kind of relieved when they said aggravated manslaughter, because at one point, you know, we waited so long, like the first year he wasn't even charged. So we kind of like didn't expect much. And then when

they came back with that, I felt like it was a relief. He's responsible for this. As you saw earlier, Brianna Michelo testified during the trial. What, if any, bruising did you see to his body? He had a large bruise on his chest. He had, it looked like fingerprint bruises all over his arms and legs. Michelo was the state's first witness. And you heard her say that the state told her this could be a difficult case because prosecutors believed that Christopher Greger caused Corey's death, but they didn't know exactly how it happened. Brianna Michelo testified that she dropped Corey off at Greger's apartment that morning on April 2nd, accidentally recording them on her cell phone for about 33 seconds.

He didn't sound ill or in distress. I'm not sure where he is yeah he's inside I don't know why he was on a human string okay Brianna so in regard to I don't know why the court is on a human string. Okay, Brianna. So in regard to the video recording that you just saw and listened to, is that your voice depicted on the recording? Yes. And who is the other voice depicted on the recording? My son, Corey.

By 5.30 that evening, Corey was at the hospital and he was dead. Do you think that Christopher Greger, I mean, what's your feeling? Do you think that he did this intentionally or that maybe he overreacted about something and flipped out and Corey died? Yeah, I don't think it was intentional. And I've said that before. I think, you know, he was abusing him as he normally did. But he was more angry because Corey had told on him, basically. And, you know, he was finding out. And I think his rage was just uncontrollable at that point and I think he took it way too far what would you like people to know about Corey um you know everyone you know knows him because of that video and um you know I want yeah right it's, I just want people to know he's way more than that. He's not like just Christopher Greger's victim. You know, he was a smart, loving little boy. He loved reading,

he loved painting, he loved, you know, being an artist. But that was his true passion. And, you know, I just want people to know he's more than just that treadmill video. After Corey died, jurors heard testimony that Christopher Greger put his phone in airplane mode and left New Jersey by car. He was stopped in Tennessee. During the trial, Judge Guy Ryan heard testimony outside the presence of the jury from David and Carolyn Greger, Christopher's parents, the defense wanted the jury to hear that Christopher was being threatened by Michelo and others and was fearful, so that is why he left the state. I told the police because I was sitting upstairs watching TV so I could see right down the cul-de-sac. And two people got out, were throwing things at the house. And when the police officer came, he said, do you know who it is? And I said, well, I'm 99% sure who it is.

But it was a little dark, so I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. But I did give him names. Okay. Did there come a time when they actually did vandalize your house? So there was. What happened? Well, at that point, I was alert because there had been a few times of cars out in the front of the property

and then subsequently there was throwing nail polish and things. So now we're alerted to the fact that we need to be on guard. So I was sitting in the living room the night that they came down the street and began to throw things at our front door and broke a window and threw dead fish and ham hocks and goose egg stones and the like. I want to take a moment to tell you about the sponsor of this episode of Crime Fix. It's truthfinder.com. I've covered crime for a long time, so I can tell you it's a great platform to research the people that you meet each day so you can stay as safe as you can.

I have a family, so I use Truthfinder for unlimited lookups on people my family interacts with each day, especially my son. I've covered far too many stories about sex offenders and other criminals to know that you just can't be too careful. And Truthfinder shows you all the sex offenders who live near you, which is really helpful to know. I use Truthfinder all of the time for work and in my personal life. I've even run background checks on myself, family members, friends, and neighbors just to see what's out there. The information that's available is actually kind of shocking. So right now you can get 50% off of confidential background reports. Log on to www.truthfinder.com slash lccrimefix, log on and start accessing information about almost anyone. Prosecutors argued that Gregor

leaving showed consciousness of guilt. In the end, the judge said the only threats the jury could hear about were the fact that Christopher Gregor could be charged with murder. What was your reaction when the defense and David Greger in particular, Carolyn testified too, but they were suggesting that you and your family basically scared the daylights out of Christopher Greger and that's why he took off because he was being threatened and things of that nature. What was your what's your response to that? So, yeah, no one threatens him. I believe what happened was when we found out Corey passed, we were calling everyone and saying, oh, my God, Chris did this because, you know, he was abusing Corey and we were afraid for this moment so when we found out

Corey passed it was like it clicked he killed him so we were you know calling our friends and family crying and telling them what happened and I believe one of them posted on Facebook saying oh this man you know killed Corey and it got it went like viral like a bunch of people shared it and I guess I think that's what they're talking about but no one was you know harassing them no one was going to their house and throwing stuff that happened months later um so and by the time we found out Chris was already on his way his phone was already in airplane mode so they didn't call and say hey you know they're saying you're a murderer he was already long gone by then. So that was just, you know, their way, it was so sad watching you testify as a mom, as somebody who loved your son, who tried to get custody of him, went to the courts, tried to intervene and, and you were

shut down. Was there anything that stood out to you during the trial that was really painful or really difficult for you to listen to? Well, the hardest I think was, you know, having to watch the treadmill video during the trial. They, I guess, introduced it through me, the evidence. So I had to watch it. And the first time I watched it was maybe two weeks while I was doing, uh, before the trial, that was the first time I ever saw it. And I had to see it. You know, I went three years without seeing it for a reason. I didn't want to. So, um, that was really hard. And then just having his defense attorney, you know, he, he was allowed to say whatever he wanted. If he wanted to lie, he was allowed. was allowed so you know a lot of what he was saying was just lies so you have to sit there and you know he just says whatever he wants and at one point I think he was you know saying I was a bad mom and you know that was that was hard to listen to and having him point at me during his closing arguments and um he made it a lot worse than it had to be. I get defending your client,

but he took the next step and just made it hurtful. So she takes him to community health. They do an exam there. And what happens at the end of that exam? They want her to take him to Jersey Shore. And she says, I'll take him. Again. And this is important.

It's important because if he goes by ambulance, who are they speaking to? Corey. If she takes him, who's conveying history? Brianna. She needed to be in control of every one of those medical visits. If she controls the medical visit, she controls the narrative. Corey's cause and manner of death were major points of contention during the trial. Jurors heard testimony from experts for the prosecution and the defense.

The state saying Corey died from blunt force trauma. Do you have an opinion after you reviewed all of this material in regard to the decedent's cause of death? Yes. And can you tell the jurors what that opinion is? But Corey died of blunt impact injuries of the chest and abdomen with laceration of the heart, left pulmonary contusion, and laceration and contusion of the liver. The defense contends Corey died from pneumonia and sepsis, a natural death, not a homicide. And so I think all together, the most likely cause of death was a very severe, rapid pneumonia. Now, there was one moment during the trial, one of many, that really piqued my interest. It was when nurse Lindsay Carnival testified about taking care of Corey in the ER the day he died. She said Corey whispered something to her.

What was Corey's condition? Corey was very sick. He mumbled a couple words to me. He seized. Nurse Carnaval wasn't allowed to say what Corey said. That would have been hearsay, but I wondered at the time, what did he say? Did he say something about how he was feeling or how he became so ill? Brianna Michelo found out. So I actually asked, I heard about that and I asked the detective since the trial was over if, you know, he could tell me what, you know, he was saying. And so he said that he had to pee, that I have to go pee. That was it. So it wasn't anything about what happened? No, I thought that as well. So I was very invested in finding out. But yeah, it was just that.

It turned out to be something that simple, something a six-year-old boy or any other patient might say. It wasn't a major revelation about anything that had happened that day. Brianna Michelo is suing DCP&P over how Corey's case was handled. That lawsuit is working its way through the courts. Now, there are a lot of questions about why Corey was still in his father's custody if he was being abused. Brianna Michalow says Corey disclosed the abuse several times, and she actually has it on video. So Corey disclosed a few times. He was very, you know, he didn't want to because I think, you know, Chris threatened him and said, you can't tell anyone. So he was scared, you know, but there's one time I got him on video

I was able to record it and the purpose for me recording it was to give it to child protective services and it was basically you know Corey was telling me that Chris was choking him and punishing him and I gave it to the workers the CPSPS workers, and they told me that, you know, I could be coaching Corey to say this, so it doesn't mean anything to them. And did these workers ever ask Corey about it or do, you know, any type of interview with Corey? So they, I don't think they ever did one

without Chris present. They did talk to him, but I don't think they ever did one without Chris present. They did talk to him, but I don't think he ever said anything. And once again, you have a little boy that's so scared. And every time you got, you know, the caseworkers come, they leave without helping him. So why is he going to tell you guys you're not helping him? And he realized that very quickly. The jury did not see those videos because the focus was on the events of March 20th, 2021, the day of the treadmill video for which Gregor faced a child endangerment charge, and April 2nd, the day Corey died, and the time in between. The jury also saw text messages between Christopher Gregor and Brianna

Michelo. Greger often appeared angry and if Michelo were late returning Corey during visitation she heard about it. Some of the text messages that Christopher Greger had sent to you that came out during the trial, I mean he was really rude to you, you know, for little things, you know, oh you're gonna be coming back, you know, for little things, you know, oh, you're going to be coming back, you know, you're getting back later than expected. So he's going to take time away off your visitation later in the week, things like that. I mean, who is the Christopher Greger that you know? Because that just seems very petty to me um yeah um coming back from

a birthday party for for your dad I believe and right get time shaved off because there was traffic you know off of your next visit yeah the person that everybody you know saw during the trial that's who he is that's who how he acted I never saw him abuse Cora, obviously, but like his demeanor of just being mean and just evil. Like, and, you know, that's, that was how he was. And in those texts, that's how he talked to me on a daily basis. You know, he was very rarely nice to me. So he has no compassion, you know. Oh, well, you know, you're a little late because it was your dad's birthday and you're all the way in Pennsylvania. That's what you would

expect from someone. But I don't think he's capable of that. Brianna Michelo had struggled with addiction and is doing much better now. She's clean and has a one-year-old daughter. She had become pregnant with Corey when she was a teenager after meeting Christopher Greger. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but your mom, I think, reached out. That's how Christopher found out about Corey. Your mom had reached out and said, hey, you have a son. Well, Christopher knew about Corey, you know, before he was even born. We discussed it. His parents found out because my mom called them. I think it was either 2017 or 18.

And she called them and said, like, hey, you guys have a grandson and your son, you know, he doesn't do anything for him. And that's when I think it was his father asked my mom why I didn't get an abortion. So that's how, you know, we met them. And like I said, I never really met them in person. But yeah, they just wanted nothing to do with Corey until they had to have something to do with Corey. Did you feel like the Grant, David and Carolyn? Did you feel like they cared about Corey? I mean, they made it sound like they were very involved, or at least David Greger made it sound like he was involved with Corey getting him off the bus and helping him with work. So I think they cared about Corey. Yeah, I do. I think they cared about Corey um yeah I do I think they I feel like they cared more about

protecting Chris at the end of the day because if they really did care about Corey they wouldn't have you know stood by his side this whole time and I feel like they would have helped me and been on my side um but like I said, I think they cared about him, but not enough to stand up for him or protect him. I feel like they knew they had at least a suspicion that Chris was abusing him because as your son, like they knew he wasn't, you know, mentally all there and, you know, he was dangerous. So I did, they could have done more. Definitely. What would you like? What sentence would you like to see Christopher Greger get when he's sentenced? Well, I would like the death penalty, but that's not on the table. So,

you know, the max, which I believe, between the two charges is 40 years. He should definitely get that. And I kind of expect that from the judge. And if not, then it's weird that he wouldn't give him the max, given the details of what happened. I'm assuming you'll speak at the sentencing. Absolutely. Yeah, I'm planning, you know, I'm working on my impact statement. I'm planning on reading it myself. I'm planning on reading it to Christopher planning you know I'm working on my impact statement I'm planning on reading it

myself I'm planning on reading it to Christopher you know addressing Christopher because I never got the chance to do that because you know once this happened he left town he left the state and never talked to me again so now he doesn't really have an option he's going to listen to what I have to say and you know that's my plan is to show him what he's done to me again. So now he doesn't really have an option. He's going to listen to what I have to say. And, you know, that's my plan is to show him what he's done to me. Well, Brianna, I'm so sorry again for your loss and for Corey. But I'm thinking, thank you for giving me some time. And of course, I hope that, you know, I hope that you get the result that you want. Christopher Greger will be sentenced on August 2nd. He faces anywhere from 10 to 30 years in prison for that aggravated manslaughter charge.

He's being held in the Ocean County Jail, where he's been in custody since his arrest. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.