Mayor Marty Small Sr. of Atlantic City and his wife La’Quetta Small pleaded not guilty Thursday to abusing their daughter.
In mid-September, Mayor Small and his wife, who is the superintendent of Atlantic City schools, were indicted on child endangerment charges. Mayor Small was also charged with assault and terroristic threats.
Prosecutors claim the parents hit and emotionally abused their daughter in December and January. Their daughter was 15 and 16 years old during this time and was allegedly left unconscious at least once from the abuse.
Mayor Small denied the charges on behalf of himself and his wife and called the incidents a private family matter that did not amount to a crime.
Ed Jacobs, Mayor Small’s lawyer said in a statement, “The high profiles earned by Marty and La’Quetta present an opportunity for a headline-grabbing investigation, even if that means meddling into personal and private family matters such as a mom and dad doing their best to manage the challenges of raising a teenage child.”
La’Quetta Small, the superintendent of schools for Atlantic City (left) and her husband, Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. (second from right) stand with their lawyers during a court appearance in Mays Landing, New Jersey, on October 10, 2024. The Smalls pleaded not guilty Thursday to abusing their daughter.
AP Photo/Wayne Parry
“We are confident that fair-minded jurors will quickly see that parenting struggles are not criminal events, and will agree on the innocence of both Marty and La’Quetta,” Jacobs said.
According to an affidavit filed by prosecutors, the Smalls’ daughter did acknowledge at one point that she made up the accusations because she was mad that her parents wouldn’t let her go out with friends. However, the document does include detailed claims by the girl that the abuse was real, and it stated that she took photos of bruises and sent them to her boyfriend, who shared them with police.
The girl’s boyfriend, who her parents disapproved of, secretly used a video chat to record an alleged instance of Mayor Smalls physically and verbally assaulting her, according to court documents from prosecutors.
Meanwhile, the principal of Atlantic City High School, Constance Days-Chapman, stands accused of failing to report the alleged abuse to state child welfare authorities. The Smalls’ daughter told Days-Chapman in December that she was suffering headaches from beatings by her parents, according to the principal’s indictment in early September.
Days-Chapman, a close friend of the parents and an employee of La’Quetta Small, allegedly told the Smalls about their daughter’s accusation, instead of the proper authorities.
Lee Vartan, Days-Chapman’s lawyer, previously said that she “is innocent,” adding, “We provided the prosecutor’s office with incontrovertible evidence of her innocence. The prosecutor ignored it; the jury will not.”
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
