(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) In a misguided attempt to stop his 6-year-old son from being “too fat,” a New Jersey man allegedly forced the child to run on a treadmill until he sustained injuries that later may have contributed to his death from blunt force trauma, the New York Post reported.
The trial of Christopher Gregor, 31, began Tuesday, with the court set to determine whether Gregor was guilty of causing the death of his son, Corey Micciolo, in the 2021 treadmill incident.
In footage from the Atlantic Heights Clubhouse fitness center, Gregor can be seen putting his son on the treadmill while repeatedly raising the speed and the incline of the machine, causing Micciolo to fall off on several occasions. Gregor then appears in the video footage to force Micciolo back onto the treadmill to repeat the cycle.
According to the arrest warrant for Gregor, footage indicates that he may have even bitten the child’s head.
Gregor was accused of endangering his son “specifically by having [Micciolo] run on a treadmill and increasing the speed, causing [Micciollo] to fall, placing [him] back on the moving treadmill while appearing to bite his head, causing the said child to fall several more times,” the warrant said.
After the incident, the boy’s mother, Breanna Micciolo, reported the injuries to the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency.
At an initial doctor’s visit, the boy told the doctor that his father had made him run “because he was too fat.”
But that visit was not the end of Micciolo’s medical issues resulting from the treadmill workout.
Two weeks after the workout, Gregor rushed Micciolo to the hospital after he woke up from a nap stumbling, nauseous and slurring his words.
As doctors took a CT scan, Micciolo began having seizures. Doctors tried to perform life-saving measures, but were ultimately unsuccessful.
Early reports indicate that liver damage that resulted from blunt force trauma was the one cause of the child’s death. The renal failure subsequently led to inflammation and sepsis. The autopsy also suggests that Micciolo suffered an acute heart injury in the hours leading up to his death.
In fact, while Gregor faces a “child endangerment” count for the treadmill episode, the specific charge related to Micciolo’s death—that he “knowingly caused serious bodily injury resulting in the death of another”—stems from a separate April 2 incident, according to CourtTV.com.
Gregor’s defense planned to argue that the “blunt force trauma” was the result of “lifesaving techniques”—suggesting that Gregor may have attempted to administer CPR to Micciolo at some point on the morning of April 2 and injured his heart in the process.
Breanna Micciolo, who was the first witness to testify in the trial, said that Gregor was absent from Corey’s life for his first four years. She said she had reported him for abuse more than 100 times but nothing was done.
After learning the autopsy results, he reportedly searched his phone for ways to flee.
