Prosecutors announced Wednesday that Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr., and his wife La’Quetta who is the superintendent of schools in the city, were both charged with child endangerment as well as other charges after allegedly hitting their teenage daughter numerous times.
The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office announced that a grand jury indicted the couple on Tuesday for child endangerment. Marty Small was also charged with assaulting and making terroristic threats.
The prosecutor said that both parents abused and slapped the girl who was between 15 and 16 years of age on several occasions during December and January.
Small told The Associated Press, “All people have heard so far is one side of a story.” “We are looking forward to telling our story.”
He stated that his daughter remained at home with her family.
Ed Jacobs, his attorney, said that the indictment had nothing to do whatsoever with Marty Small’s tenure as Mayor of Atlantic City. “There is no accusation of corruption or official misconduct.” The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office shouldn’t be interfering in a family matter.
He said, “Marty La’Quetta and La’Quetta were good parents raising a teenager.” “They will be exonerated and are innocent.”
Marty Small Sr., according to prosecutors, hit his daughter with a broom multiple times on the head, causing her loss of consciousness, on Jan. 13th, 2024.
They said that ten days before, Small had argued with his daughter. He grabbed her head, threw her to the floor, and threatened to throw her down an entire flight of stairs. According to prosecutors, he threatened to “smack out the weave” from her head.
The Democratic Mayor, 50 years old, is also accused of repeatedly punching his daughter in the legs causing bruises.
La’Quetta, Small 47, is accused by her daughter of repeatedly punching the chest. This caused bruises. In another incident, she’s accused of dragging her by her hair her daughter and hitting her with a belt around her shoulders.
La’Quetta Small is accused in another incident of hitting her daughter during an argument.
Indicting the Smalls occurred less than a fortnight after the Atlantic City High Principal was indicted on a similar case.
Constance Days Chapman was indicted for official misconduct, child abuse, and other charges. She allegedly failed to report to the state’s child welfare authorities the alleged abuse that Smalls’ daughter suffered as required by the law and district policy.
Days-Chapman, who is a friend of Smalls’s, is La’Quetta Smalls’s boss.
According to the indictment the girl who was 15 years old at the time told Days-Chapman that she suffered from headaches all the time because her parents beat her in their home.
Instead of telling the authorities, Days Chapman told Smalls.
Her lawyer claims she is innocent.
