ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. and his wife La'Quetta, the city's school superintendent, have been charged with child abuse and other charges for allegedly repeatedly abusing their teenage daughter, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office said the indictment was returned Tuesday by a grand jury charging the couple with child abuse. Marty Small was also charged with assault and making terroristic threats.
Prosecutors said both parents beat and emotionally abused the girl, who was 15 or 16, multiple times in December and January.
“This indictment has absolutely nothing to do with Marty Small's tenure as mayor of Atlantic City,” said his attorney, Ed Jacobs. “There is no allegation of corruption or any official misconduct. Marty and La'Quetta Small do not need the Atlantic County District Attorney's Office to interfere in a private family matter.”
“Marty and La'Quetta are good mothers and fathers raising a teenager,” he said. “They are completely innocent and will be completely exonerated.”
Jacobs would not say whether the girl still lives with her parents.
Prosecutors say Marty Small Sr. struck his daughter multiple times in the head with a broom on January 13, 2024, causing her to lose consciousness.
Ten days earlier, they said, Small had gotten into an argument with his daughter, grabbed her head and threw her to the ground, and threatened to throw her down the stairs. He threatened to “slam” her head during the incident, prosecutors said.
The 50-year-old Democratic mayor is also accused of repeatedly hitting his daughter in the legs, causing bruises.
La'Quetta Small, 47, is accused of punching her daughter multiple times in the chest, causing bruising. In another alleged incident, she is accused of dragging her daughter by her hair and hitting her on the shoulders with a belt, causing scarring.
In another incident, La'Quetta Small is accused of punching her daughter in the mouth during an argument.
The charges against the Smalls were filed less than a week after the principal of Atlantic City High School was indicted in a case stemming from the same incidents.
Constance Days-Chapman was charged with abuse of office, child abuse and other charges for failing to report the alleged abuse of the Smalls' daughter to child protective authorities, as required by law and school district policy.
Days-Chapman is a good friend of the Smalls; La'Quetta Smalls is her boss.
According to the complaint, the girl, who was 15 at the time, told Days-Chapman in December that she suffered from constant headaches because her parents beat her at home.
But instead of telling authorities, Days-Chapman told the Smalls.
Her lawyer says she is innocent.
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