Atlantic Metropolis mayor, spouse indicted for allegedly beating and abusing their teenage daughter
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Atlantic Metropolis Mayor Marty Small Sr. and his spouse, La’Quetta, town’s superintendent of colleges, have been indicted on baby endangerment and different expenses for allegedly beating their teenage daughter on quite a few events, prosecutors mentioned Wednesday.
The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Workplace mentioned the indictment was made Tuesday by a grand jury that accused the couple of kid endangerment. Marty Small additionally was charged with assault and making terroristic threats.
Prosecutors mentioned each mother and father hit and emotionally abused the woman, who was 15 to 16 years outdated, on a number of events in December and January.
“This indictment has completely nothing to do with Marty Small’s tenure as mayor of Atlantic Metropolis,” mentioned his lawyer, Ed Jacobs. “There isn’t any cost of corruption or any official misconduct. Marty and La’Quetta Small do not want the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Workplace meddling into a non-public household matter.”
“Marty and La’Quetta are an excellent mother and pop elevating a teenage baby,” he mentioned. “They’re completely harmless and will probably be completely exonerated.”
Jacobs wouldn’t say whether or not the woman remains to be residing at residence along with her mother and father.
Prosecutors mentioned that on Jan. 13, 2024, Marty Small Sr. hit his daughter a number of occasions within the head with a brush, inflicting her to lose consciousness.
Ten days earlier, they mentioned, Small engaged in an argument together with his daughter, grabbing her head and throwing her to the bottom, and threatening to throw her down a flight of stairs. He threatened to “smack the weave out” of her head in the course of the incident, based on prosecutors.
The 50-year-old Democratic mayor is also accused of punching his daughter repeatedly within the legs, inflicting bruising.
La’Quetta Small, 47, is accused of punching her daughter a number of occasions on the chest, leaving bruising. In one other alleged incident, she is accused of dragging her daughter by the hair and putting her with a belt on her shoulders, leaving marks.
In one more incident, La’Quetta Small is accused of punching her daughter within the mouth throughout an argument.
The indictment of the Smalls got here lower than every week after the principal of Atlantic Metropolis Excessive Faculty was indicted in a case stemming from the identical incidents.
Constance Days-Chapman was indicted on official misconduct, baby endangerment and different expenses for allegedly failing to report the alleged abuse of the Smalls’ daughter to state baby welfare authorities as required by legislation and faculty district coverage.
Days-Chapman is a detailed good friend of the Smalls; La’Quetta Smalls is her boss.
Based on the indictment, in December the woman, who was 15 on the time, instructed Days-Chapman she was struggling steady complications from being crushed by her mother and father of their residence.
However as a substitute of telling authorities, Days-Chapman as a substitute instructed the Smalls.
Her lawyer says she is harmless.
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Observe Wayne Parry on X at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC
