Atlantic City mayor, wife charged with abusing and assaulting teenage daughter
ATLANTIC CITY, NJ — Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small and his wife were accused Monday of abusing and assaulting their teenage daughter multiple times, including hitting her on the head with a broom and knocking her unconscious.
The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office said it has filed charges against both parents for endangering the welfare of a child.
Marty Small was also charged with making terroristic threats; serious assault and simple assault. La’Quetta Small was additionally charged with three separate counts of simple assault.
The prosecutor’s office said in a news release that “the defendants physically and emotionally abused their 15/16-year-old daughter multiple times” in December 2023 and January 2024.
It said that in one incident, Marty Small allegedly hit his daughter in the head several times with a broom, causing her to lose consciousness. He is also accused of hitting his daughter multiple times in the legs, leaving bruises and threatening to throw her down a flight of stairs and “beat the tissue out of her head,” the release said.
LaQuetta Small, the superintendent of Atlantic City schools, is accused of punching her daughter multiple times in the chest, leaving bruises, and punching her in the mouth during a separate argument. LaQuetta Small is also accused of dragging her daughter by the hair and hitting her on the shoulders with a belt, leaving marks, prosecutors said.
Reached by telephone, Small declined comment and referred a reporter to his attorney Ed Jacobs. The attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The president and vice president of the Atlantic City Board of Education did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Monday.
Both Smalls were issued summonses with the charges against them.
Earlier this month, Small held a press conference at City Hall to say a search in late March was “a private family matter,” and not a crime.
Small said at the news conference that he and his wife have been in contact with state child welfare authorities and have nothing to hide.
“We’re going through family therapy, and that’s what this should be: a family affair,” he said.
A spokesperson for the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency said it cannot discuss its cases publicly to protect the privacy of those involved.
Small’s wife and two children attended the news conference with him but did not speak and left before it ended.
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