Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / BOY DEAD: SICK MOMENT DAD FORCES SON, 6, TO RUN TREADMILL B/C 'TOO FAT'

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BOY DEAD: SICK MOMENT DAD FORCES SON, 6, TO RUN TREADMILL B/C 'TOO FAT' · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:00
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace breaking news. Tony caught on
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Speaker 1: video the sickening moment daddy physically forces his six year
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Speaker 1: old little son to on full speed on a treadmill
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Speaker 1: because he was quote too fat. That little boy, six
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Speaker 1: year old Corey now dead from quote chronic abuse. We
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Speaker 1: want justice. Good evening, I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.
0:36
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us.
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Speaker 2: By three pm, this defendant carried Corey's nearly limp body
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Speaker 2: into Southern Ocean Medical Center. You reported that Corey was
0:50
Speaker 2: sleepy and a thrown up. Corey was admitted quickly. He
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Speaker 2: was brought to Room six in the emergency department, coded, he.
1:02
Speaker 3: Was intubated, He quoted again, he lost his pulse, and
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Speaker 3: by five or three pm, Corey was pronounced yet well.
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Speaker 1: At least he did manage to pull out a handkerchief
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Speaker 1: and wipe his face. I didn't see any tears, nothing.
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Speaker 1: That's the dad sitting there. I don't know that he
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Speaker 1: deserves to be called dad. When I think of dad,
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Speaker 1: I think of my father, who sacrificed everything for us.
1:30
Speaker 1: Something stuck out in the prosecutor's opening statement right there.
1:35
Speaker 1: She's given a great opening by the way, We're taking
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Speaker 1: you inside the courtroom as this case advances. She said,
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Speaker 1: everything was fine other than the bruises. The bruises, Everything
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Speaker 1: was fine, but the bruises. In what world is that? Okay?
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Speaker 1: He was fine other than the bruises. The boy is dead,
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Speaker 1: covered in bruises. This after caught on V forcing him
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Speaker 1: over and over and over to keep running, venting, spitting,
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Speaker 1: fuming his rage onto a six year old, frail little boy.
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Speaker 1: The boy is dead. You know how many people around
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Speaker 1: the world would pay everything they've got to have a
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Speaker 1: little boy like that to love. No joining me an
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Speaker 1: all star panel to make sense of what we are learning.
2:35
Speaker 1: But first, more of that opening statement.
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Speaker 4: This case is about Corey and how Corey became the
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Speaker 4: ultimate victim of this defendant's punishment and abuse.
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Speaker 1: And don't be mistaken, We're going to explain to you
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Speaker 1: how this was not the first time this little boy
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Speaker 1: had come home covered in bruises and scrapes and too
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Speaker 1: afraid to tell mommy what was happening. Straight out to
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Speaker 1: crimeonline dot Com investigative reporter Nicole part Nicole, what happened
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Speaker 1: Early in.
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Speaker 5: The morning around nine am. Corey's mom, Brianna drives over
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Speaker 5: to the father's house. Corey is shared custody between mom
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Speaker 5: and dad. She kisses her son, tells him goodbye. He's
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Speaker 5: perfectly fine when he gets out of the car, and
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Speaker 5: we know that around three point forty later that afternoon,
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Speaker 5: Corey's lifeless body, unconscious, is carried into the medical center.
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Speaker 1: Why it was dad so angry? Was it because mommy
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Speaker 1: was running late?
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Speaker 4: Listen, they were in Pennsylvania. There was a traffic and
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Speaker 4: they were running late. Ry's mom told the defendant that
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Speaker 4: but Brian, his lateness you'll hear, was pissing him off.
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Speaker 4: He told Brianna to drop Cory off at the apartment
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Speaker 4: complex's Jim.
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Speaker 6: And meet him there.
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Speaker 1: So she did.
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Speaker 4: Corey and the defendant went into the gym, and you'll
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Speaker 4: see what happened next because that Jim had a surveillance system.
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Speaker 3: And you will see what this defendant did to his
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Speaker 3: son inside.
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Speaker 1: That Jim inside the gym. The video is speaking volumes
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Speaker 1: joining me and All Star panel to makes sense of
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Speaker 1: what we know right now. But I want to go
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Speaker 1: first to a veteran trial lawyer, former homicide prosecutor, host
4:36
Speaker 1: of True Crime, Boss Jarrett Farentino at Jarrettfarantino dot com Jarrett.
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Speaker 1: Before the advent of video cams literally everywhere, there was
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Speaker 1: a very strong chance the father turned murder defendant could
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Speaker 1: have claimed that the little boy had some other accident.
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Speaker 1: Because the boy was so afraid he would never tell anyone,
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Speaker 1: not even doctors, not even teachers, not even his mother,
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Speaker 1: exactly what dad was doing to him. But because we
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Speaker 1: have this video surveillance, we know what dad did.
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Speaker 7: That video surveillance speaks for Corey Nancy. That's his voice
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Speaker 7: in that courtroom. This little boy endured that abuse. You know.
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Speaker 7: The shocking thing too, is it was caught on camera,
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Speaker 7: but it was in a public place. It was a gym.
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Speaker 7: To think that he would have done this in a
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Speaker 7: gym where other people could have walked in only your
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Speaker 7: imagination one's wild of what has gone on behind closed
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Speaker 7: doors with this little boy and his father.
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Speaker 1: What more do we know?
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Speaker 8: Take a listen when Corey Micheloh returns to his mother's
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Speaker 8: after his second unsupervised visit with Christopher Gregor, the boy's
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Speaker 8: face is swollen and he has a busted lip. Gregor
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Speaker 8: offers no explanation, and Corey refuses to tell his mom
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Speaker 8: what happened. Brianna Micheloh immediately calls police and files a
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Speaker 8: report of abuse with New Jersey's Division Child Protection and Permanency.
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Speaker 8: Over the next twenty months, Corey continues to come home
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Speaker 8: with bruises, scrapes, black guys, and buy marks. Michelo files
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Speaker 8: seven more reports of abuse, reportedly with little response from DCPP. Emails,
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Speaker 8: texts and hundreds of calls from Brianna Michelo are unanswered.
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Speaker 8: Agents are sent to interview Corey, but always while he
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Speaker 8: is under the care of Gregor.
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Speaker 1: What does it take before defacts Department Family Children's Services
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Speaker 1: will actually do something? How many bruises? How many cuts?
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Speaker 1: And then to interview the six year old little boy,
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Speaker 1: Corey while he's with his abuser. Do you really think
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Speaker 1: the boy is going to tell the truth to Doctor
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Speaker 1: Bethany Marshall, renowned psychoanalysts joining us out of LA at
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Speaker 1: Doctorbethanymarshall dot com. Doctor Bethany I can hardly stand to
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Speaker 1: look at these photos of abuse. Many people would refuse
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Speaker 1: to believe it if video had not caught the moment
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Speaker 1: Dad forces the six year old boy to run the
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Speaker 1: treamull because he says the boy is quote too fat.
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Speaker 1: If anything, the boy by the time he died was
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Speaker 1: too Do you see those bruises on your monitor. They're
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Speaker 1: all over his body, Bethany, they are all over.
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Speaker 9: And even when the prosecutor said that the child was
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Speaker 9: fine when he was with his mother, he wasn't fine
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Speaker 9: from the standpoint that he'd probably been abused for years.
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Speaker 9: The father didn't have interest in this child until he
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Speaker 9: was four years old, and it's likely that he abused
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Speaker 9: the child for many reasons, one of which he was
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Speaker 9: to get back at the mother. He probably had a
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Speaker 9: rage disorder, but most importantly, he probably thought that the
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Speaker 9: child was unconditionally bad. This is at the heart of
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Speaker 9: child abuse, that the abuser feels the child as bad
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Speaker 9: and also resents that the child has needs, and that's
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Speaker 9: why they often restrict food. I've heard of abuse cases
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Speaker 9: where families actually put a padlock on the refrigerator because
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Speaker 9: they do not want the child to eat. So this
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Speaker 9: child was abused in so many ways, and you know,
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Speaker 9: it's interesting there was that strange mark on his forehead
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Speaker 9: that the mother reported. In abuse cases, one of the
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Speaker 9: things we see are marks that do not fit any
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Speaker 9: particular patterns, such as a fall or something like that.
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Speaker 9: Often they are on both sides of the body when
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Speaker 9: a child falls or there was an accident, so the
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Speaker 9: bruises will be on the one side. But in this
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Speaker 9: case we see bruises all over and on both sides,
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Speaker 9: and also bite marks. That's quite common, and it seems
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Speaker 9: that that strange mark on the forehead might have been
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Speaker 9: a bite mark.
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Speaker 1: In the opening statements, we hear the prosecutor state that
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Speaker 1: there's biding. I've never heard of an adult biting the child.
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Speaker 1: But I'm looking now at the official warrant the state
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Speaker 1: of New Jersey versus Christopher greg Or, that's the father,
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Speaker 1: and it states here that specifically he forced the child
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Speaker 1: to run the treadmill, increasing the speed, putting the child
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Speaker 1: on the treadmill while it was going full blast anyway,
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Speaker 1: causing maybe to fall, placing it back on, and appearing
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Speaker 1: to quote bite his head. That I've never heard of
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Speaker 1: biting your child, doctor Bethany.
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Speaker 9: Believe it or not, it is a common sign of abuse.
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Speaker 9: And think about it. What is biting? What does that mean?
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Speaker 9: It's a sign of rage. It's primitive, It's kind of explosive,
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Speaker 9: like the person is so angry. All they want to
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Speaker 9: do is sink their teeth into the other person. That
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Speaker 9: gives us great insight into the state of mind of
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Speaker 9: this father. This child should never have been left alone
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Speaker 9: with this man.
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Speaker 1: I want you to hear what the mom says on
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Speaker 1: the stand under oath.
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Speaker 10: Did you speak to Corey in the car before you
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Speaker 10: sent him into the defendant's hall? I did? And was
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Speaker 10: that the last time that you spoke to Corey? Was
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Speaker 10: did Corey exit your car?
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Speaker 11: He did?
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Speaker 1: And can you tellagers or Corey walks.
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Speaker 9: You walked inside defendant someone?
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Speaker 1: You're hearing the mom on the stand. I find it
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Speaker 1: very interesting that dad never seems upset in the courtroom.
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Speaker 1: He looks more angry than anything else. To Bill Dealey,
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Speaker 1: former FBI investigator specialty forensic photography security expert, Bill, thank
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Speaker 1: you for being with us. I'm telling you no one
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Speaker 1: would have believed this without the video. Why because Corey,
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Speaker 1: aged six, would never write out his dad, even though
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Speaker 1: he came home over and over and over covered in bruises,
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Speaker 1: horrible scrapes up and down his arm. Did you see
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Speaker 1: where his eye actually his eye was bleeding on the
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Speaker 1: inside of the eye. I mean, how much does it
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Speaker 1: take Bill daily before somebody will listen. Now the boy
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Speaker 1: is dead. Corey is dead at six years old.
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Speaker 12: Bill, Yeah, Nancy, And this heartbreaking story obviously has his
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Speaker 12: long litany of images that were created, not just by
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Speaker 12: the mother, which, of course in the defense defense turns
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Speaker 12: hands is going to be kind of twisted around. But
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Speaker 12: that video taken by just a totally independent operation the
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Speaker 12: gym to convey what happened. So he pieced us all together,
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Speaker 12: and you put together a timeline and from a forensic standpoint,
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Speaker 12: and I don't want to speak to forensic pathology, but
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Speaker 12: certainly a lot will not play into the cause of
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Speaker 12: death and exactly what led to his.
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Speaker 11: I guess media.
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Speaker 12: First of all, he couldn't speak, he couldn't carry himself
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Speaker 12: with you stumbling, and then eventually he kind of became
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Speaker 12: limp and went into the emergency room.
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Speaker 1: Straight out to doctor Kendall Crown's chief medical examiner, Parent
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Speaker 1: County that's Fort Worth has conducted over ten thousand autopsies.
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Speaker 1: Lecturer University Texas Christian Medical School, doctor Crowns, thank you
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Speaker 1: for being with us. You heard what the mother just
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Speaker 1: testified to on the stand under oath that the dad
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Speaker 1: for what good it is, states Corey was lethargic, his
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Speaker 1: legs were hurting, sleeping all day and throwing up. What
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Speaker 1: does that mean?
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Speaker 13: So it could mean a number of things. But with
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Speaker 13: the video that you've shown, with the extreme amount of
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Speaker 13: exercise that's going on, you can have to question whether
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Speaker 13: the child's dehydrated, becoming lethargic because he's exhausted, not getting
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Speaker 13: any fluid intake, and then getting a low sodium if
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Speaker 13: you will, and becoming overall just dehydrated, which can lead
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Speaker 13: to death in itself.
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Speaker 11: But then you add on top of that the.
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Speaker 13: Bruises and the other injuries, there could be other things
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Speaker 13: going on internally that could be making him look thargic
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Speaker 13: and tired.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Crown's, I want you to hear what we have
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Speaker 1: learned about the initial autopsy. Listen.
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Speaker 14: The initial autopsy reveals that Corey died as a result
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Speaker 14: of blunt force injuries with cardiac and liver contusions, along
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Speaker 14: with inflammation and sepsis. The Ocean County Medical Examiner lists
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Speaker 14: the manner of death as undetermined. A forensic pathologist performs
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Speaker 14: a second autopsy, confirming the blunt force trauma and injuries
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Speaker 14: to Corey's liver and heart. The Pathologists found evidence that
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Speaker 14: Corey was chronically abused and believed he suffered an acute
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Speaker 14: traumatic injury to his heart four to twelve hours before
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Speaker 14: his death. Corey's death is reclassified as a homicide.
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Speaker 1: Wow, doctor Kendall Crowns, what does that mean? Liver contusions,
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Speaker 1: blunt force injuries, cardiac contusions. I thought a contusion was
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Speaker 1: like a blow, like when you have blunt force contusion,
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Speaker 1: inflammation sepsis.
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Speaker 13: That's a lot in Tusians are essentially bruises. It's just
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Speaker 13: a fancier t arm. So when you see contusions of
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Speaker 13: the heart and liver, that means there was a blow
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Speaker 13: to the chest or the abdomen that was significant enough
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Speaker 13: that it bruised the actual internal organs themselves. Sometimes with
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Speaker 13: those you can get splitting of the organ, which causes
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Speaker 13: internal hemorrhage to be associated with it. One thing you
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Speaker 13: have to be concerned of with children is if they
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Speaker 13: have a lot of bruises on their skin, they don't
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Speaker 13: have a large circulating amount of blood. So the more
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Speaker 13: bruises they have, the more bloods going into these bruises,
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Speaker 13: the more likelihood they're going to die from just the
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Speaker 13: beating alone. But then you have internal injuries as well
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Speaker 13: as well as the extreme exercise that the child was
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Speaker 13: being forced to do. So you have all that combined
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Speaker 13: as why he's dying from blunt force injuries. Then on
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Speaker 13: top of that, you have sepsis, which is an infectious component,
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Speaker 13: and that can be a result from neglect or something
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Speaker 13: along those lines. Is where he gets a disease and
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Speaker 13: gets an infectious disease and then passes away.
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Speaker 1: So a contusion is in vernacular common speech, a bruise,
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Speaker 1: is that right?
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Speaker 11: That's correct? Correct?
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Speaker 1: Okay, So how exactly do you get contusions on your
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Speaker 1: liver and cardiac contusions? What's a cardiac contusion? A bruise
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Speaker 1: on your.
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Speaker 11: Heart, that's correct.
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Speaker 13: It's a bruise on the outer surface of the heart,
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Speaker 13: which is called the epicardium. So you have a bruise
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Speaker 13: on the outer surface, and that's from a very hard
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Speaker 13: punch to the chest that causes the chest wall to
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Speaker 13: push in and actually bruise the heart. You have to
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Speaker 13: remember too, with kids that their bone structure is a
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Speaker 13: lot more appliable because your bones get harder over time,
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Speaker 13: so when little kids have a lot more appliability.
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Speaker 11: In their chests.
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Speaker 13: So if they're hit hard enough in the chest, they
15:53
Speaker 13: can get a bruise on their heart. The liver is
15:55
Speaker 13: a little easier to bruise because your liver isn't completely
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Speaker 13: protected by your ribcage. So if you're punched in the
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Speaker 13: abdomen kind of upper abdomen area, you can get those
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Speaker 13: bruises or injuries to the liver as well.
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Speaker 1: If you have a serious bruise on the right side
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Speaker 1: of your stomach, let me just say, three four inches
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Speaker 1: above your hip bone, is that your liver? But where
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Speaker 1: is your liver?
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Speaker 13: So liver is on the right side of your body.
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Speaker 13: It has it's very large on the right side, then
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Speaker 13: becomes more smaller as you go to the left. But
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Speaker 13: it's kind of sitting right across your mid abdomen with
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Speaker 13: the larger portion of it being in your upper and
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Speaker 13: the mid right abdomen is where your liver would be located.
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Speaker 1: And why would there be that excess is bleeding? Doctor
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Speaker 1: Kendall Crown's what is underneath the skin there left side,
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Speaker 1: just above the waistband, going toward your.
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Speaker 13: Back, left side, just above your waistband could be spleen.
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Speaker 11: It could be.
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Speaker 13: Kidney also in testines as well. Also again. You know
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Speaker 13: you're mentioning the fact that he looks very bony. He is,
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Speaker 13: he is doing an extreme amount of exercise for a
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Speaker 13: child of his age on that treadmill.
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Speaker 11: Just in those scenes we're seeing, you.
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Speaker 13: Got to figure there's more of that going on behind
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Speaker 13: the scenes.
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Speaker 10: After the phone conversation, did you know at that time
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Speaker 10: what the hospital Corey was taken to?
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Speaker 11: No?
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Speaker 1: And at that time, what did you do?
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Speaker 2: I started calling the hospitals to see if Corey was there.
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Speaker 9: I also called my local police department to.
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Speaker 2: Kind of report Corey as like, I don't know where
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Speaker 2: he is and he's not feeling pretty sick.
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Speaker 1: You are seeing the mom on the stand breaking down
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Speaker 1: in tears, and she describes her ex calling her and
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Speaker 1: telling her their son, their six year old son is
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Speaker 1: in the hospital, but not telling her refusing to tell
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Speaker 1: her which hospital. To doctor Bethany Marshall, that's just another
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Speaker 1: form of torture. If somebody called me and told me John,
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Speaker 1: David or Lucy were in the hospital and wouldn't tell
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Speaker 1: me where. Can you even imagine trying to find somebody
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Speaker 1: in an.
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Speaker 9: Er, Nancy. This just shows the animosity towards the mother
18:19
Speaker 9: as well as the child. And one of the things
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Speaker 9: we frequently see in child abusers is that they want
18:24
Speaker 9: to dominate and control the child. They hate the child,
18:28
Speaker 9: they want to start the child. They sometimes commit death
18:31
Speaker 9: by exercise, but they want to dominate and control. So
18:36
Speaker 9: this is just another form of abuse, as you just
18:38
Speaker 9: now pointed out, depriving the mother of knowledge about.
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Speaker 1: Her own son. Crime stories with Nancy Grace, I want
18:57
Speaker 1: to go back to doctor Tyndall Crown's. Crowns, I think
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Speaker 1: we've identified I'm waiting for that video, the moment when
19:05
Speaker 1: the dad actually bites the little boy, actually bites his son.
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Speaker 1: Hold it, wait, wait, wait, he puts him back on
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Speaker 1: the treadmill is still going fast. Look there, right there,
19:18
Speaker 1: he's using both hands to restrain the boy. All he's
19:23
Speaker 1: got left are his teeth and he for the boy.
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Speaker 1: He tries to shrink down. Corey shrinks down to try
19:32
Speaker 1: to get away from the bite, but the dad is
19:35
Speaker 1: actually biting him. As the rage is boiling over and
19:41
Speaker 1: because his hands and feet are occupied, he bites the boy.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Kendall Crowns, have you ever seen anything like it?
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Speaker 11: Yes? I have.
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Speaker 13: In tild Toby's cases, occasionally you will get ones that
19:57
Speaker 13: have bites on the face, neck, extremities, chest back. I've
20:01
Speaker 13: seen it on any surface of the body. But as
20:04
Speaker 13: Darktor Marshall mentioned earlier, the rage associated with the child
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Speaker 13: abuse can often spoil over into just biting, and you
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Speaker 13: are kind of seeing that in this case as well
20:15
Speaker 13: as his hands are occupied, so the only thing he
20:18
Speaker 13: has left to do is bite.
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Speaker 1: Stars just what this child has been through, Doctor Bethany,
20:25
Speaker 1: when we're showing the bruises on his right side, and
20:30
Speaker 1: then we learn part of the cod because of death
20:34
Speaker 1: is bruising to deliver. That was what that bruise is
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Speaker 1: actual bruising to his heart. And then being able to
20:45
Speaker 1: really look and examine the video and you see his
20:50
Speaker 1: own bio dad holding him by the arms and forcibly
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Speaker 1: biting him in the head.
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Speaker 9: You know, Nancy, this father had prolonged rage and contempt
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Speaker 9: for this child. Like I said earlier, he wanted to
21:08
Speaker 9: bring the child under his control so he could torture him. Nancy,
21:13
Speaker 9: you and I have covered so many cases where there
21:16
Speaker 9: is death by exercise. Many years ago, a little girl
21:19
Speaker 9: whose stepmother forced her to just walk and walk and
21:22
Speaker 9: walk endlessly, and eventually the little girl died and in
21:26
Speaker 9: this kind of a case, you know, we see it's
21:28
Speaker 9: not just you know, all parents get angry with their
21:30
Speaker 9: children now and again, but it's temporary. Then the parent withdraws,
21:35
Speaker 9: they calm themselves down, they reason, they talk with the
21:38
Speaker 9: other parent, and it's just momentary. They don't hit the child.
21:42
Speaker 9: But in this case, the child was at actually an
21:44
Speaker 9: object used to disperse rage and hatred towards the child,
21:49
Speaker 9: towards the mother, towards god knows, you know what, Nancy.
21:53
Speaker 9: When I see this dad in court, maybe I shouldn't
21:55
Speaker 9: say this, but he looks a little roided out to me,
21:58
Speaker 9: like he looks like he's on steroid. There's something like
22:01
Speaker 9: a natural you know, jawline, huge shoulders, you know, that
22:05
Speaker 9: can produce rage. But notwithstanding the size of the dad
22:11
Speaker 9: compared to this little boy, and you know, sadly, Nancy,
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Speaker 9: the mental state of this little boy is probably that
22:19
Speaker 9: he feels like he's bad, guilty, he deserves to be punished.
22:24
Speaker 9: I am a bad little boy, and if I don't
22:27
Speaker 9: keep this secret, Dad's going to hit me even more,
22:29
Speaker 9: because that means I'll be really, really, really bad. So
22:33
Speaker 9: one of the things we can't measure is the state
22:36
Speaker 9: of mind of the child and what happens in his
22:39
Speaker 9: mind and psychologically as a result of the abuse.
22:43
Speaker 6: The day after Corey's examination by a pediatrician, Christopher Gregor
22:46
Speaker 6: tells Brianna Mitchello that Corey is feeling bad. The six
22:50
Speaker 6: year old is sleepy and nauseous. Gregor puts Corey down
22:53
Speaker 6: for a nap, and when he wakes up, Corey is stumbling,
22:55
Speaker 6: slurring his words, and is having trouble breathing. Gregor takes
22:59
Speaker 6: the boy to Southern Ocean Medical Center, where he's quickly
23:02
Speaker 6: admitted and intubated. Doctors take Corey for a CT scan.
23:06
Speaker 6: During the scan, Corey starts seizing and losing his pulse.
23:10
Speaker 6: Medical staff administer life saving efforts but cannot revive Corey.
23:14
Speaker 1: You, doctor Kendall Crowns, Remember you're speaking to a panel
23:18
Speaker 1: of laypeople, and I'm trying to figure out how bruising,
23:22
Speaker 1: even if to the heart or the liver, causes someone
23:26
Speaker 1: to become sleepy and nauseous. It sounds like a brain bleed,
23:31
Speaker 1: but I know that that's not the CEOD cause of death.
23:34
Speaker 1: But I know that happens when you have a brain bleed.
23:38
Speaker 1: Then he is stumbling slurring his words, he's having trouble breathing.
23:42
Speaker 1: So how does that relate to the essentially beating he
23:49
Speaker 1: took on that treadmill, the biting, the beating, the blows.
23:54
Speaker 1: How does that end up resulting in stumbling, slurring, having
24:00
Speaker 1: trouble breathing, sleepy nausea.
24:02
Speaker 11: Well, so I would agree with you that it does.
24:04
Speaker 13: Those symptoms sound more like a head injury than they
24:07
Speaker 13: do an abdomen or chest injury. But again with the
24:12
Speaker 13: extreme exercise, I do think he's potentially dehydrated, possibly getting
24:16
Speaker 13: confused from the dehydration, and then he is The father
24:20
Speaker 13: becomes enraged and beats him, and then he probably becomes
24:23
Speaker 13: on responsive.
24:24
Speaker 11: Dad takes him to the hospital.
24:26
Speaker 13: So the initial symptoms of he's confused lethargic are what
24:31
Speaker 13: causes the dad to become enraged and starts hitting him.
24:34
Speaker 11: Another thing.
24:36
Speaker 14: Brianna Mitchello drives to Christopher Gregor's Barnegut apartment for a
24:39
Speaker 14: shortened visit with Corey three days after dropping him off
24:42
Speaker 14: with Gregor at the fitness center, Mitchello notices odd bruises
24:46
Speaker 14: and scrapes on Corey's forehead and chest. Corey won't tell
24:49
Speaker 14: her what happened, but seems upset and scared. Mitchelloh files
24:53
Speaker 14: another abuse complaint and for emergency custody with DCPP. Mitchello
24:58
Speaker 14: also schedules a doctor's appointment for Corey during her next
25:01
Speaker 14: parenting time. Through tears, Corey tells the doctor about the
25:04
Speaker 14: treadmill incident and says Gregor forced him to run because
25:07
Speaker 14: he was too fat. The doctor notes fourteen bruises or
25:10
Speaker 14: scrapes on Corey's body, but the rest of his tests
25:13
Speaker 14: come back normal. Mitchello's request for emergency custody is denied
25:17
Speaker 14: and she returns Corey to Gregor the next morning.
25:20
Speaker 1: Can you even imagine mommy makes an emergency request for
25:26
Speaker 1: custody and she is denied and it was just emergency,
25:30
Speaker 1: temporary custody until there could be a full hearing. She
25:34
Speaker 1: was denied, and now the boy is dead. Fail fail
25:40
Speaker 1: fail by the system. But that's not all. Listen.
25:46
Speaker 8: Pediatrician doctor Nancy Deacon saw Corey Michelo on April first,
25:50
Speaker 8: one day before he passed, and during her court testimony
25:54
Speaker 8: she lists out all of the bruises and other injuries
25:56
Speaker 8: present on the boy's body. Doctor Deacon listed a blue
25:59
Speaker 8: gray bruise on his left cheek, a large yellow green
26:02
Speaker 8: bruise on his left shoulder, another large yellow green bruise
26:06
Speaker 8: on his left inner arm, a blue bruise present on
26:09
Speaker 8: his elbow. Beyond over twelve bruises that covered Corey Michelo's body,
26:13
Speaker 8: the doctor noted two areas on the right side of
26:16
Speaker 8: his chest that she called it two areas of hyper
26:19
Speaker 8: pigmented skin, meaning the wound was healing, but pigment had
26:22
Speaker 8: not yet returned yet.
26:24
Speaker 1: For some reason, For some reason, Corey gets sent back
26:29
Speaker 1: to his dad and now he is dead. By Treadmill
26:35
Speaker 1: telling the little boy he was quote too fat, I
26:38
Speaker 1: could see the bones coming out of his back. To
26:41
Speaker 1: Jarrett Fiorentino, high profile lawyer, former homicide prosecutor, and host
26:47
Speaker 1: of podcast True Crime Boss Jarrett Farentino, I know that
26:51
Speaker 1: you have interviewed many, many child victims and child witnesses,
26:58
Speaker 1: and you have to unlock their story. They don't talk
27:03
Speaker 1: like we do. For instance, if you're trying to get
27:06
Speaker 1: a date to put on an indictment, you have to
27:08
Speaker 1: say things like was the Christmas tree up? Did the
27:12
Speaker 1: Easter bunny come? Was? Did you have the American flag
27:16
Speaker 1: red white and blue out? Was it around July the fourth.
27:20
Speaker 1: That's just an example, and I remember the very last thing.
27:24
Speaker 1: Typically a child would say, I would say who did this?
27:29
Speaker 1: Who did this? Who made this bruise? Who made you
27:33
Speaker 1: take off your underwear? Who? And there'd be a long
27:37
Speaker 1: pause and they would say fill in the blank, Daddy
27:40
Speaker 1: or Uncle Jim, or whoever the perp was. It's very hard,
27:46
Speaker 1: difficult to get that out of a child, especially the
27:50
Speaker 1: child loves the parent, even when the parent is abusing the.
27:54
Speaker 7: Child, absolutely, Nancy, And oftentimes they look down and you
27:58
Speaker 7: know the truth is coming. But when a child can't speak,
28:02
Speaker 7: if Corey could not or would not say what happened
28:06
Speaker 7: to him? Just from head to toe, this little boy
28:10
Speaker 7: had bruising at various levels of healing, which is in
28:13
Speaker 7: dishe of chronic abuse. The system failled this little boy tremendously.
28:19
Speaker 15: It's so sad to listen to the account of those
28:22
Speaker 15: injuries and those interviews. If you couldn't get it out
28:26
Speaker 15: of Corey, the physicians or whoever examined this little boy,
28:30
Speaker 15: or a judge that looked at that emergency petition should
28:33
Speaker 15: have absolutely it should have spoke.
28:35
Speaker 11: Volumes for that.
28:44
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy gray, Doctor Bethny Marshall. I recall
28:53
Speaker 1: an animal abuse case I looked at and in the case,
28:59
Speaker 1: they perp was sitting bebes at the dog in rapid succession,
29:07
Speaker 1: like a lot like twenty thirty Bebes right at the dog,
29:11
Speaker 1: and the dog, instead of running would be was on
29:15
Speaker 1: all fours down, crawling toward the master, wagging the tail
29:23
Speaker 1: and yelping with pain, not running away. And look, I'm
29:30
Speaker 1: just a JD. You're the shrink. What does it mean
29:34
Speaker 1: when the victim is still so deeply attached to the abuser?
29:39
Speaker 1: Corey wouldn't tell that his dad was doing this. He
29:43
Speaker 1: finally did tell, you know, the doctor ultimately at first
29:47
Speaker 1: trying to blame it on playing football with his dad,
29:50
Speaker 1: and then finally mentioned the treadmill incident. But what is that?
29:55
Speaker 1: Why do we humans and pets do that we call
30:01
Speaker 1: go toward our adezer.
30:03
Speaker 9: I know it's so tragic, and you said so beautifully earlier,
30:06
Speaker 9: this little boy loved his dad. Of course, we are
30:09
Speaker 9: wired to connect. That's how we survived as a species,
30:14
Speaker 9: is that we bonded with our caregivers. And it's well
30:17
Speaker 9: known that when you interview a child victim, you or
30:21
Speaker 9: even an adult victim. You can't start with daddy as
30:24
Speaker 9: bad or your husband hit you, because that person has
30:28
Speaker 9: had some good experiences, believe it or not, with the abuser,
30:33
Speaker 9: Daddy through the football. Daddy maybe told him a bedtime story,
30:37
Speaker 9: Daddy fed him, so.
30:40
Speaker 1: That dad is not all bad to the child.
30:43
Speaker 9: And this is a very important thing to remember whenever,
30:46
Speaker 9: let's say you have a friend who's in an abusive
30:48
Speaker 9: relationship or or a church fellow church member, to not say, well,
30:53
Speaker 9: why are you with him? Or he's a horrible person,
30:55
Speaker 9: but to try to acknowledge both sides of their experience
30:58
Speaker 9: so with that person, because that is actually more genuine
31:02
Speaker 9: and true and will align them with you, and it
31:04
Speaker 9: will give you a better chance of helping them.
31:07
Speaker 1: Joining us is an investigative reporter with Crime Online, Nicole Parton.
31:11
Speaker 1: Nicole not only investigating cases, but very very familiar with
31:17
Speaker 1: the foster system. Why is it it takes so long, Nicole?
31:23
Speaker 1: And you've seen it over and over and over for
31:26
Speaker 1: children to actually be removed from an abusive parent.
31:30
Speaker 5: So many cases, and in this case, if you count
31:33
Speaker 5: up the number of times that Brianna reported the abuse,
31:37
Speaker 5: over one hundred times she made calls she was doing
31:42
Speaker 5: everything she could to report the abuse of her son.
31:45
Speaker 5: One day before Corey's death, she was denied that emergency
31:50
Speaker 5: hearing to have him temporarily removed. The system failed, his
31:55
Speaker 5: father failed, but the system failed little Corey tremendously and
32:00
Speaker 5: he paid the ultimate sacrifice for that.
32:02
Speaker 1: Nancy.
32:02
Speaker 9: Can I be a good comment about that?
32:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, John Penn, and I want to clarify what I heard, Bethany.
32:07
Speaker 1: I think that's you that he was reported over one
32:10
Speaker 1: hundred times. Did I hear that correctly? That's right, that's right.
32:13
Speaker 5: There were many hundred, one hundred calls, over one hundred
32:17
Speaker 5: that were made, not only from Corey's mother, from Corey's
32:21
Speaker 5: school teacher who had said, there's abuse, there's neglect, there's
32:25
Speaker 5: an abuse, a repeated number of phone calls coming into
32:29
Speaker 5: the Department of Children, and just one day before his death,
32:33
Speaker 5: the judge denied that emergency hearing.
32:35
Speaker 1: Bethany.
32:35
Speaker 9: You know, Nancy, I see this all the time in
32:37
Speaker 9: my practice. Parents who are reporting abuse, and you know
32:41
Speaker 9: what happens is that they eventually become paranoid, obsessed, and
32:47
Speaker 9: they kind of look and sound crazy, like they discredit
32:50
Speaker 9: themselves in some ways because they are so up set,
32:55
Speaker 9: a parent's job is to protect a child, and here
32:58
Speaker 9: the system is actually interfering with the maternal instinct, the
33:03
Speaker 9: drive to protect, and so that the more the parent
33:08
Speaker 9: pleads child protective services, the more they're kind of dismissed
33:13
Speaker 9: and devalued as being just sort of a crazy parent
33:16
Speaker 9: or a part of a domestic abuse situation. And I
33:19
Speaker 9: think that there has to be better training that parents
33:23
Speaker 9: whose children are being abused often present with a lot
33:26
Speaker 9: of anxiety, a lot of panic, a lot of paranoia,
33:29
Speaker 9: and that that is the most credible sign that they
33:32
Speaker 9: are telling the truth.
33:33
Speaker 8: On March thirty first, twenty twenty one, Michelo filed paperwork
33:37
Speaker 8: seeking emergency custody of Corey while DCPP investigated her latest
33:41
Speaker 8: allegation of abuse. The agency had seen the video of
33:44
Speaker 8: Corey running on the treadmill, and a caseworker later told
33:47
Speaker 8: police that he had photographed and investigated bruising on Corey
33:50
Speaker 8: six days after the alleged incident. Our report submitted by
33:54
Speaker 8: DCPP about the March twenty incident played a crucial role
33:57
Speaker 8: in the judge's decision, which said the court does not
34:00
Speaker 8: find that Corey is in danger of imminent and irreparable harm. Therefore,
34:05
Speaker 8: the Court does not find a temporary modification of the
34:07
Speaker 8: party's custody and parenting time arrangement appropriate at this time.
34:12
Speaker 8: Michel left Corey with his father the morning of April second,
34:15
Speaker 8: twenty twenty one. At three point thirty that afternoon, Gregor
34:18
Speaker 8: told them mom he was taking Corey to the hospital.
34:20
Speaker 8: Two hours later, Corey died.
34:22
Speaker 1: Another judge, with his head up his rear end, does
34:28
Speaker 1: not find Corey in danger of imminent harm and refuses
34:33
Speaker 1: to modify visitation. The mom forced to leave the six
34:38
Speaker 1: year old boy with dad. The afternoon, he goes to
34:43
Speaker 1: the er and dies. Why is the judge still on
34:48
Speaker 1: the bench, Just confused, concerned? And also, I want you
34:52
Speaker 1: to hear the teacher one more time. Is not just
34:56
Speaker 1: the mom they're making look crazy because she's reported dad
35:00
Speaker 1: one hundred times over twenty months. The teacher raised the
35:05
Speaker 1: red bell of alarm, but nobody listened. Listened to Kim Peace,
35:10
Speaker 1: this is Corey's first grade teacher, and I want you
35:13
Speaker 1: to notice that she sees the bruises and Corey is
35:20
Speaker 1: then kept on virtual learning remote Listen, what.
35:24
Speaker 2: If any observations did you make of Corey? When you
35:26
Speaker 2: saw him virtually on March twenty.
35:28
Speaker 9: Ninth, I saw, I saw bruises on his cheek.
35:33
Speaker 2: Is that the same as what you were describing from
35:35
Speaker 2: March twenty third? Now that and did Corey attend school virtually.
35:41
Speaker 9: On March thirtieth?
35:43
Speaker 1: Yes?
35:43
Speaker 2: Did you observe him?
35:45
Speaker 11: Yes?
35:45
Speaker 2: What if any observations did you.
35:47
Speaker 1: Make the bruising the teacher? The first grade teacher, You know,
35:52
Speaker 1: you expect the teacher to be sending home construction paper
35:55
Speaker 1: r and checks and big stars on the child papers
36:00
Speaker 1: they do at school. Instead first grade teachers on the
36:05
Speaker 1: stand describing day after day after day bruising on this boy.
36:09
Speaker 1: Did you hear the prosecutor she's really good, state Hey,
36:12
Speaker 1: is that the same bruises as you described on March
36:14
Speaker 1: twenty three? And she goes, oh no, this is March thirty.
36:17
Speaker 1: By this time, they were keeping him home on remote.
36:21
Speaker 1: Did you see daddy not even shed one tear?
36:24
Speaker 9: Nancy? I also noticed that the dad looked quizzical, like
36:28
Speaker 9: he was so stumped by how this could have happened?
36:33
Speaker 9: Was I was scanning his face and he kind of
36:37
Speaker 9: looks like a person who's, you know, the pathological liar,
36:40
Speaker 9: the abuser. The criminality, a person who has criminality and
36:45
Speaker 9: you ask him about the crime and they go, H,
36:48
Speaker 9: what me, I never did that. It's almost like he's
36:51
Speaker 9: playing a role in court.
36:53
Speaker 1: The boy is dead, Corey is dead. That trial happening.
37:01
Speaker 1: Now we stop to remember American hero Deputy Shearif Tobin Bolter.
37:07
Speaker 1: Just twenty seven, Sheriff Bolter was shot while conducting a
37:14
Speaker 1: routine traffic stop Boise, Idaho. A father to be, Sheriff
37:21
Speaker 1: Bolter expecting a new baby with his wife. He leaves
37:26
Speaker 1: behind his grieving wife Abby and his unborn baby and
37:33
Speaker 1: his family. American hero Deputy share of Tobin Bolter. I
37:39
Speaker 1: want to thank our guests for being with us in
37:43
Speaker 1: this extremely difficult case to cover. But I want to
37:48
Speaker 1: thank you for being with us tonight and facing the facts.
37:54
Speaker 1: Nancy Gray signing off, good night friend,