Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small charged with telling daughter to lie about alleged abuse
Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. allegedly asked his teenage daughter to lie about injuries that prosecutors said were inflicted by her parents at the family's home last winter. Small faces new accusations in addition to the child abuse charges he and his wife, LaQuetta, pleaded not guilty to last month.
The Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office said Monday that Small, 50, told his 16-year-old daughter to "twist up" a statement to give to investigators during their probe of the abuse allegations in December and January. Small and his wife, 47, were indicted in September on charges that they each harmed the teenager on multiple occasions.
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Marty Small allegedly struck his daughter with a broomstick, slammed her down the stairs and punched her repeatedly. LaQuetta Small is accused of dragging her daughter by the hair, striking her with a belt and hitting her in the face.
Days before the indictment, prosecutors said Small asked his daughter to lie to investigators and tell them that she suffered a head injury after tripping and falling at the family's home.
The allegations of abuse publicly surfaced in April when it came to light that Constance Days-Chapman, the principal at Atlantic City High School and Small's former campaign manager, allegedly failed to disclose the girl's report to authorities. Small's daughter later talked about the alleged abuse with a school counselor, who contacted the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency.
Small and his wife each pleaded not guilty last month to charges of child endangerment, assault and terroristic threats. Small now faces an additional charge of witness tampering.
Small's attorney, Edwin Jacobs, called the new charge against the mayor "sheer nonsense."
"When a parent encourages a child to be accurate and truthful in statements to investigators, that parent is not witness tampering," Jacobs said in a statement to FOX29.
Small, a Democrat, has served as Atlantic City's mayor since 2019. His term ends next year.
