A father who is facing a murder trial after the death of his six-year-old son has claimed the child's mother made him lie about the abuse.
Christopher Gregor is charged with endangering the welfare of a child, as well as first-degree murder following the death of his son, six-year-old Corey Micciolo.
The charge of endangerment comes after an incident in March 2021, which was captured on CCTV, in which Gregor appeared to force the child to use a treadmill, despite the young boy falling off at least six times.
Weeks after the harrowing footage was recorded, Corey's mother, Breanna Micciolo, allegedly began to be "concerned" after seeing bruises on his body, shortly before his death.
Corey was just six years old. Credit: Handout
Corey was later rushed to the hospital by his father, before he was intubated, coded twice, and tragically died, with his autopsy ruling the cause to be blunt force trauma.
A day before his death, Micciolo took Corey to a pediatrician, who sent them to the local hospital after seeing bruising on the child's body.
Prosecutors have claimed that the child was released later that same evening after appearing to have "nothing wrong" with him, before he was returned to his father the following morning.
In new audio released from the trial, the court heard a recording of Gregor calling child services hours before Corey died, to complain about Micciolo taking him to the hospital and therefore going over her visitation time the previous day.
He also alleged that the mother had made Corey "lie" about alleged abuse he'd faced from his father, and had "coached" the child in what to say.
Audio was played from a call between Gregor and an employee from the Division of Child Protection and Permanency at around 10AM on the morning of April 2, the day Corey died.
During the call, which was played while the jury wasn't in court, Gregor complained about Micciolo taking Corey to hospital and going over her visitation time with him, claiming he had "no idea what was going on" all day.
He then added: "My son came back this morning and he was saying to me that his mom said that he had to tell the doctor that I had hit him and things of that nature, coaching him.
"The big issue for me is, she put in abuse allegation, which she's done more than a dozen times, and every single time she has said that is not the case. He said it to the worker twice.
"I just want it documented that he came home and one of the first two things he said was, 'I don't want to go with my Mom anymore, she's going to try to take me away from you.'"
Gregor added: "And he also said, ‘Mom told me to lie and I had to to lie.' That was a huge concern of mine."
He also expressed concerns that caseworkers would take the allegations seriously and claimed that he was worried that Micciolo - who was open about her drug use in court earlier in the week - was relapsing.
According to reports from Asbury Park Press, prosecutors agreed to redact Gregor's mention of previous abuse allegations before calling the Division of Child Protection and Permanency employee back to the stand in front of the jury later in the trial.
The call was made around 10AM in the morning, and by 4PM, Gregor had taken Corey to Southern Ocean County Medical Center, shortly before he died.
The court was shown security footage of the pair arriving at the hospital, with Gregor carrying his son into the building.
The court also heard testimony from William Doyle, a registered nurse in the ER who interacted with the pair as they arrived.
Doyle told the court: "His arms did not look like they had much movement to them, his legs did not look like they had much movement to them. I knew something was concerning, but I couldn't see everything I needed to see.
"I was depending on Chris to convey a sense of urgency or un-wellness; I did not get from him at first. I did not feel I had to immediately rush them [into the ER]."
He added that Gregor had told him that Coret had appeared "loopy" and "drowsy" earlier in the morning, before he laid him down to rest.
The father then allegedly said that when Corey continued to show the same symptoms and was "fatigued and not himself" later in the day, he decided to take him to the hospital.
Doyle claimed that he realized the severity of the situation when he finally got a good look at the child's face, adding: "There was a moment when Corey tilted his head back and that's when I got what I needed to see to really kick up the speed on this emergency," adding that the young boy's "eyes were in the back of his head" and that he "didn't look well, he was pale."
The medic also claimed that Gregor's behavior was "clinical" while in the ER, despite him feeling like Corey required an "all hands on deck type of situation".
Gregor did show emotion later in the day, when Sgt. Matthew Scutti took the stand to talk about the autopsy process.
As the officer spoke about Corey being put into a body bag with photographs being taken before the autopsy, Gregor was seen shedding tears, even grabbing tissues at one stage.
The defense has claimed that Corey's bruises were from playing football and that the child actually died from sepsis from pneumonia.
The trial is ongoing.
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