New Jersey mayor and his wife face charges of beating and abusing their teenage daughter

By WAYNE PARRY, Associated Press

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ (AP) — Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. and his wife, La'Quetta, the city's school superintendent, have been charged with child endangerment and other offenses for allegedly hitting their teenage daughter multiple times, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The Atlantic County District Attorney's Office said the indictment was handed down Tuesday by a grand jury accusing the couple of child endangerment. Marty Small was also charged with assault and terroristic threats.

The prosecution stated that both parents had beaten and emotionally abused the 15 to 16 year old girl several 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 are no charges of corruption or abuse of office. 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 parents raising a teenage child,” he said. “They are completely innocent and will be completely exonerated.”

Jacobs did not want to say whether the girl still lives at home with her parents.

Prosecutors said Marty Small Sr. hit his daughter several times on the head with a broom on January 13, 2024, causing her to lose consciousness.

Ten days earlier, Small allegedly got into an argument with his daughter, grabbed her by the head, threw her to the ground and threatened to throw her down a flight of stairs. During the incident, he threatened to “knock the hair out of her head,” prosecutors said.

The 50-year-old Democratic mayor is also accused of repeatedly hitting his daughter on the legs, causing bruising.

La'Quetta Small, 47, is accused of repeatedly hitting her daughter in the chest, leaving bruises. In another alleged incident, she allegedly pulled her daughter's hair and hit her shoulders with a belt, leaving marks.

In another incident, La'Quetta Small is accused of hitting her daughter in the face during an argument.

The charges against Smalls came less than a week after the principal of Atlantic City High School was indicted in a case related to the same incidents.

Constance Days-Chapman was charged with abuse of office, child endangerment and other offenses for failing to report the alleged abuse of the Smalls' daughter to state child protective services, as required by law and school district policy.

Days-Chapman is a close friend of the Smalls; La'Quetta Smalls is her boss.

According to the indictment, the then 15-year-old girl told Days-Chapman in December that she suffered from constant headaches due to the beatings she received from her parents at home.

But instead of telling the authorities, Days-Chapman informed the Smalls.

Her lawyer says she is innocent.