Atlantic City Mayor Indicted on Child Abuse Charges
The New York Times
Marty Small Sr. and his wife, the superintendent of the city’s schools, are accused of beating and punching their teenage daughter.
The mayor of Atlantic City, N.J., Marty Small Sr., and his wife, the city’s superintendent of public schools, were indicted on Tuesday on charges related to the alleged abuse of their teenage daughter.
In an indictment handed down by a New Jersey grand jury, Mr. Small, 50, and his wife, La’Quetta Small, 47, were charged with second-degree endangering of the welfare of a child, according to the Atlantic County prosecutor’s office. Mr. Small was also charged with aggravated assault and making terroristic threats.
The indictment comes five months after the couple was first accused of physically and emotionally abusing their daughter. The abuse occurred when she was 15 and 16 years old, prosecutors said in a news release.
Prosecutors described a pattern of violence by both parents over a two-month period ending in January. Once, the prosecutors said, the mayor used a broom to hit his daughter on her head until she lost consciousness. In another episode, he punched her repeatedly in the legs, causing bruises, according to prosecutors. On another occasion, they said, Ms. Small dragged her daughter by her hair and hit her with a belt.
Mr. Small’s lawyer, Edwin Jacobs, said in an interview that his client denied the charges and stressed that the indictment did not accuse Mr. Small of official misconduct in his role as mayor. Mr. Small will “absolutely not” resign, Mr. Jacobs said.
