The mayor of Atlantic City, N.J., Marty Small Sr., and his wife, La’Quetta Small, the superintendent of Atlantic City’s public schools, have been accused of physically and emotionally abusing their teenage daughter, officials announced on Monday.
Mr. Small, 50, and Ms. Small, 47, were charged with a second-degree count of endangering the welfare of a child, the Atlantic County prosecutor’s office said in a news release. Prosecutors said that the couple abused their daughter “on multiple occasions” between December and January, when she was 15 and 16.
On one occasion, prosecutors said, Mr. Small hit his daughter in the head with a broom several times, causing her to lose consciousness. The abuse also included punching and threats, according to the prosecutor’s office.
A spokesman for the mayor’s office directed all inquiries about the charges to Mr. Small’s lawyer, Edwin Jacobs. Mr. Jacobs said the matter “has absolutely nothing to do with any improprieties in the mayor’s office.”
Mr. Jacobs added that the prosecutor’s office’s investigation “focuses on private personal matters, including challenges that Mayor Small as a dad and his wife, La’Quetta, as a mom have been facing raising a teenage child.”
Mr. Jacobs said he was representing only the mayor; it was not immediately clear who was representing Ms. Small. The schools superintendent’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The charges come just weeks after the prosecutor’s office searched the mayor’s home and seized some electronic devices. Mr. Small, a Democrat in his first full term, said at a news conference at the time that the search and warrants served on his devices were related to a “family issue” and that there was “no corruption.”
The search came the same day that the principal of Atlantic City High School, who previously ran Mr. Small’s re-election campaign, was charged with failing to report an allegation of child abuse to a state child welfare agency. It was not clear whether the student who reported the abuse was the Smalls’ daughter.
In addition to the broom allegation, prosecutors said that Mr. Small got into an argument with his daughter and threatened to hurt her by “grabbing her head and throwing her to the ground, and smacking the weave out of her head,” prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also said that in other incidents, Mr. Small and Ms. Small punched their daughter repeatedly on her legs and chest, causing bruises. Ms. Small is also accused of punching the girl in her mouth, dragging her by her hair and striking her with a belt on her shoulders, leaving marks.
In addition to the charge of endangering the welfare of a child, the Smalls were charged with several counts of assault. Mr. Small was also charged with third-degree terroristic threats.
Mr. Small, who previously served on the City Council, is the fifth Atlantic City mayor to face charges since the 1980s. He was first sworn in as mayor in 2019, after his predecessor, Frank M. Gilliam Jr., pleaded guilty to stealing $87,000 from a youth basketball program. Mr. Small was elected to a full term in 2022.
