Bre Micciolo: Ignored Reports, Trial Testimony, and DCPP Lawsuit

Bre Micciolo is the New Jersey mother of six-year-old Corey Micciolo, who died on April 2, 2021, from blunt force injuries inflicted by his father, Christopher Gregor. She has said publicly that she reported suspected abuse to the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency more than 100 times in the 18 months before Corey’s death, testified as one of the first witnesses at Gregor’s 2024 trial, and has since sued the state agency she blames for failing to act. Gregor was convicted of aggravated manslaughter and child endangerment in May 2024 and sentenced to 25 years in state prison.¹

Who She Is and the Custody Backdrop

Micciolo was 16 when Corey was conceived. Gregor, then 21, did not know he had a son until paternity testing confirmed the relationship around 2018, and he waited nearly a year after that confirmation before beginning to see the boy. Micciolo lived in Englishtown, New Jersey, with her mother, Rebecca Micciolo. Gregor initially stayed with his parents in Monroe Township before moving to an apartment complex in Barnegat.²

Gregor eventually obtained weekday custody of Corey through the courts. Micciolo later alleged that during the period they spent time together, Gregor had coerced her by demanding sex in exchange for access to their son. She eventually left and returned to her mother’s home.²

The Reports She Says Were Ignored

Micciolo has stated that she contacted the Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCPP) more than 100 times about suspected abuse over the 18 months preceding Corey’s death.³ Her wrongful death lawsuit places the first notice to the agency in or before September 2019, with further reports filed in April 2020, July 2020, and continuing through the day Corey died.⁴

The episode she has cited most often is the treadmill incident. On March 20, 2021, surveillance cameras at Gregor’s apartment complex gym recorded him forcing Corey to run on a treadmill at increasing speeds. The footage showed the boy falling off the machine face-first repeatedly while Gregor raised the speed and put him back on the moving belt.⁵ Micciolo gave the video to DCPP. A caseworker interviewed and photographed Corey six days later, but, as she put it, “that’s as far as it went.”⁶

On March 31, 2021, Micciolo filed an emergency court motion seeking sole custody of Corey. A judge denied the request on April 1, ruling she had failed to demonstrate the child faced “imminent and irreparable harm.” The ruling relied in part on a DCPP letter summarizing the agency’s preliminary findings about the treadmill incident.⁷ Corey died the next day.

In December 2022, twenty months after his death, DCPP substantiated two of Micciolo’s abuse allegations: one tied to the treadmill incident on March 25, 2021, and one from the day Corey died. The agency’s letters told her it would not be providing further services to the family.⁴

How Corey Died

On April 1, 2021, Micciolo brought Corey to Jersey Shore University Medical Center for evaluation. He was discharged just after midnight on April 2 and returned to Gregor’s care.¹ Corey had been scheduled for an interview with a trained child abuse evaluator that day but never attended.⁸

Later that day, Gregor brought Corey to the emergency room at Southern Ocean Medical Center after the boy woke from a nap with stumbling, slurred speech, nausea, and shortness of breath. He suffered seizures during a CT scan and was pronounced dead at 5:02 p.m.¹

Ocean County medical examiner Dr. Dante Ragusa identified the cause of death as blunt force injuries with cardiac and liver contusions, along with acute inflammation and sepsis, and initially listed the manner as “undetermined.” In September 2021, forensic pathologist Dr. Thomas Andrew reviewed the case and changed the manner of death to homicide, finding that Corey had suffered an acute traumatic injury to the heart four to twelve hours before he died, along with evidence of chronic abuse.¹

What She Told the Jury

Gregor’s trial began on April 30, 2024, in Ocean County Superior Court before Judge Guy P. Ryan and ran roughly six weeks.⁹ Micciolo was among the first witnesses. She testified on the opening day about her repeated attempts to alert authorities and described watching the system fail to protect her son.¹⁰ She told the jury she had reported the abuse more than 100 times and that DCPP had possession of the treadmill surveillance video a full week before Corey died without intervening.⁶

The Sentence and Her Statement in Court

On May 31, 2024, the jury found Gregor guilty of aggravated manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child. He was acquitted of the murder charge.¹¹⁹¹²

Micciolo addressed Gregor directly at the hearing. She called him a “monster” who had turned her life into “an absolute living nightmare,” challenged his continued denial by asking, “Are you that crazy that you convinced yourself you didn’t do this?” and closed with, “I hate you, and I will never forgive you.” In the days beforehand, she posted on social media that she had rewritten the statement many times because “nothing feels right and nothing feels enough.” Supporters held a vigil outside the courthouse on the day of sentencing.¹³

Her Lawsuit Against DCPP

Micciolo filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Ocean County Superior Court against DCPP and its caseworkers, alleging their conduct was “negligent, reckless, and demonstrated palpably unreasonable conduct” in failing to properly investigate repeated reports of abuse. Attorney Chris Conrad, representing Corey’s estate, said the goal was to prove that “the inactions or the half-actions of DCPP in failing to respond promptly and fully to repeated complaints of abuse is shocking to the conscience.”¹⁴

The suit initially named individuals believed to be DCPP employees, with counsel indicating that additional agency members could be added as discovery progressed. A request by Gregor’s father, David Gregor, to be named representative of Corey’s estate was denied by the court because of a “clear conflict of interest.”¹⁴ DCPP did not respond to media requests for comment on the lawsuit.⁴

Her Public Advocacy Since

Since Corey’s death, Micciolo has used social media, podcast appearances, and television interviews to press what she describes as systemic failures in New Jersey’s child protective system. On NewsNation’s CUOMO, she offered her view that Gregor had projected his own childhood experiences onto their son, saying he “took his trauma and put it on Corey.”⁶

Her criticism of DCPP has been blunt. “I don’t know if it was incompetence on DCPP’s side or they just didn’t believe me,” she said in one interview. “They need to be held accountable.”¹⁵ In another, she said: “The hardest part is that it could have been prevented. It shouldn’t have happened. DCP&P has a hand in this. Corey would still be alive if they stepped in when they saw that video.”⁶

A GoFundMe titled “In Memory of Corey,” started in July 2021, was set up to pay for the child’s headstone, purchase a burial plot next to his for Micciolo, and direct remaining funds to child abuse charities. It raised over $14,000 from more than 400 donors.¹⁶

1
Court TV. NJ v. Christopher Gregor Treadmill Abuse Murder Trial
2
Jersey Shore Online. Mother Won’t Give Up Until She Finds Justice for Her Son’s Death
3
NewsNation. Verdict Reached in Treadmill Abuse Murder Trial
4
Inside Edition. Corey Micciolo Death Abuse Lawsuit Against New Jersey DCPP
5
NBC Philadelphia. Child Treadmill Death: Dad Found Guilty in NJ
6
NewsNation. Treadmill Abuse Trial: Mom Says Dad Took His Trauma Out on Son
7
Inside Edition. Corey Micciolo Abuse Murder: Christopher Gregor Custody
8
Crime Analyst. Ep 192: Corey Micciolo — My Son’s Death Could Have Been Prevented
9
Asbury Park Press. Christopher Gregor Treadmill Video Sentencing
10
Court TV. Treadmill Abuse Murder Trial: Victim’s Mother Testifies
11
USA Today. Treadmill Father Christopher Gregor Guilty of Manslaughter
12
News 12 New Jersey. Barnegat Man Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Fatally Abusing 6-Year-Old Son
13
NewsNation. Treadmill Abuse Dad Sentencing: Corey Micciolo
14
Jersey Shore Online. State Accused of Failing to Protect Boy Allegedly Killed by Dad
15
NewsNation. Were Mom’s Abuse Warnings Ignored by the State
16
GoFundMe. In Memory of Corey