ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey — The city’s mayor and his wife, who is the superintendent of the city’s school district, both are facing criminal charges after they were accused of beating and injuring their teen daughter.
A news release from the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office says Marty Small Sr., 50, and his wife, La’Quetta Small, 47, each were indicted Tuesday on a charge of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child. The mayor also is charged with third-degree terroristic threats and third-degree aggravated assault.
“All people have heard is one side of the story,” the mayor tells The Associated Press. “We look forward to telling our side.” He said his daughter remains at home with her parents.
“This indictment has absolutely nothing to do with Marty Small’s tenure as mayor of Atlantic City,” said his lawyer, Ed Jacobs. “There’s no charge of corruption or any official misconduct. Marty and La’Quetta Small don’t need the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office meddling into a private family matter.”
“Marty and La’Quetta are a good mom and dad raising a teenage child,” he said. “They are totally innocent and will be totally exonerated.”
La’Quetta Small, the superintendent of schools in Atlantic City, N.J., and the wife of the mayor, faces accusations that she and her husband physically abused their teen daughter.(Wayne Parry, Associated Press file photo)
Prosecutors say that the couple “physically and emotionally” abused their daughter multiple times in December 2023 and January. The abuse started when she was 15 and continued when she was 16, prosecutors say.
The mayor is accused of hitting his daughter in the head multiple times with a broom on Jan. 13. The teen lost consciousness during the beating, prosecutors say. Reports say she was admitted to a hospital three days after the beating.
On Jan. 3, the mayor reportedly threatened his daughter during an argument with “earth slamming” her down the stairs. He grabbed her by the head and threw her to the ground, then repeatedly struck her in the head, prosecutors say.
In another dispute, prosecutors say the mayor repeatedly struck his daughter in the legs, causing bruising. His wife is accused of punching the teen multiple times in the chest, also causing bruising.
In another incident, La’Quetta Small is accused of dragging her daughter by the hair and then hitting her across the shoulders with the belt, leaving marks. She also is accused of punching her daughter in the mouth.
The teen girl told a worker at her high school about the abuse, NBC News reports, leading to the investigation. Her boyfriend had video recordings showing marks left by the abuse, NBC News reports.
NBC Philadelphia reports both Smalls have remained in their jobs during the investigation.
The indictment of the Smalls came 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 indicted on official misconduct, child endangerment and other charges for allegedly failing to report the alleged abuse of the Smalls’ daughter to state child welfare authorities as required by law and school district policy.
Days-Chapman is a close friend of the Smalls; La’Quetta Smalls is her boss.
(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)
