Atlantic City Mayor and his wife are indicted for child abuse

The mayor of Atlantic City and his school superintendent wife have been indicted on charges of beating up their 15 year-old daughter.

Democrat Marty Small Sr., 50, and his wife La'Quetta beat and emotionally abused the youngster on multiple occasions in December and January, according to newly-filed child endangerment charges.

The pair are said to have abused their daughter - who turned 16 during the period when the alleged beatings took place - for refusing to stop dating a boy. 

Cops say the youngster was beaten unconscious with a broom, warned she'd be 'earth slammed' down stairs, slapped with a belt and punched in the mouth.  

Small had previously denied rumors that he'd beaten his daughter so badly she miscarried. 

Prosecutors said that on Jan. 13, 2024, Marty Small Sr. hit his daughter multiple times in the head with a broom, causing her to lose consciousness.

Ten days earlier, they said, Small engaged in an argument with his daughter, grabbing her head and throwing her to the ground, and threatening to throw her down a flight of stairs. He threatened to 'smack the weave out' of her head during the incident, according to prosecutors.

The 50-year-old Democratic mayor also is accused of punching his daughter repeatedly in the legs, causing bruising.

La'Quetta Small, 47, is accused of punching her daughter multiple times on the chest, leaving bruising. In another alleged incident, she is accused of dragging her daughter by the hair and striking her with a belt on her shoulders, leaving marks. 

In yet another incident, La'Quetta Small is accused of punching her daughter in the mouth during an argument.

The alleged beatings came to light after the couple's daughter - anonymized in court papers as JF - recorded herself being abused and told a worker at her school about what was going on. 

Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. and his wife, La'Quetta, the city's superintendent of schools, have been indicted on child endangerment and other charges for allegedly beating their teenage daughter on numerous occasions, prosecutors said Wednesday.

'This indictment has absolutely nothing to do with Marty Small's tenure as mayor of Atlantic City,' said his lawyer, Ed Jacobs.

'There's no charge of corruption or any official misconduct. Marty and La'Quetta Small don't need the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office meddling into a private family matter.' 

'Marty and La'Quetta are a good mom and dad raising a teenage child,' he said. 'They are totally innocent and will be totally exonerated.'

Jacobs would not say whether the girl is still living at home with her parents. 

The indictment of the Smalls came less than a week after the principal of Atlantic City High School was indicted in a case stemming from the same incidents.

Constance Days-Chapman was indicted on official misconduct, child endangerment and other charges for allegedly failing to report the alleged abuse of the Smalls' daughter to state child welfare authorities as required by law and school district policy.

Days-Chapman is a close friend of the Smalls; La'Quetta Smalls is her boss.

According to the indictment, in December the girl, who was 15 at the time, told Days-Chapman she was suffering continuous headaches from being beaten by her parents in their home.

But instead of telling authorities, Days-Chapman instead told the Smalls.

Her lawyer says she is innocent.