NEW JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office filed child abuse charges Monday against Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small and his wife.
Prosecutors say both Marty and his wife, Atlantic City School Superintendent La’Quetta Small, violently abused their 16-year-old daughter numerous times in December 2023 and January 2024.
Investigators say Marty knocked her unconscious after multiple broomstick strikes to the head. He allegedly also punched her legs, causing bruises, and another time, during an argument, threatened to hurt her by “earth slamming her down the stairs, grabbing her head and throwing her to the ground, and smacking the weave out of her head,” the prosecutor's office said.
La’Quetta is accused of punching her daughter in the face and chest and hitting her with a belt.
The mayor had his family by his side April 1 when he responded to a warrant served at his house a few days prior. He said his family is going through challenging personal matters and they are in therapy.
His attorney Ed Jacobs told the New York Times that 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.”