Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small refused to resign and remained defiant Tuesday after he was charged with abusing his teenage daughter.
Small, 50, and his wife La’Quetta Small, 47, were formally accused Monday of beating their daughter in December 2023 and January 2024, when she was 15 and 16 years old. La’Quetta Small is the Superintendent of Atlantic City Public Schools.
“Mayor Small and Superintendent La’Quetta Small are completely innocent of any wrongdoing and will ultimately be vindicated,” their lawyer Ed Jacobs said Tuesday in a statement. “These complaints focus exclusively on private family matters, basically attempting to second-guess parental decisions.”
The Smalls are accused of beating their daughter several times in those two months. In one incident, Marty Small knocked his daughter unconscious by smacking her on the head repeatedly with a broom, according to investigators.
Marty and La’Quetta Small both disapproved of their daughter’s boyfriend, prosecutors said. Her video calls with the boy allegedly secretly recorded Small family conversations.
“I’m gonna hurt you,” Mayor Small says in one recording before threatening to throw his daughter down a staircase, according to police. “Tell them. I don’t care. What they gonna do to me? I’ll smack that weave out ya head. Nothing is gonna happen to me!”
The Smalls are also accused of physically abusing their daughter in four other instances, including one in which La’Quetta Small allegedly struck her with a belt to the shoulders.
“I’ve been mentally, emotionally, verbally and physically abused, and it’s a lot,” the daughter wrote in an online message to a friend. “I’m overwhelmed and I keep crying every night.”
Both Smalls were charged with second-degree child endangerment. Marty Small was also charged with third-degree terroristic threats, third-degree aggravated assault and simple assault. La’Quetta Small was charged with three counts of simple assault. Their first court date is set for May 15.
With News Wire Services
