Atlantic City mayor, wife charged with abusing and assaulting teenage daughter
The Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office said it filed charges against both parents of endangering the welfare of a child.
Marty Small also was charged with making terroristic threats; aggravated 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
LaQuetta Small also is accused of dragging her daughter by the hair, and striking her with a belt on her shoulders, leaving marks, according to the prosecutor's office.
Reached by telephone, Small declined comment. He referred a reporter to his lawyer Ed Jacobs, who emphasized that the charges do not involve public corruption or any impropriety in the mayor's discharge of his official duties.
Instead, they involve “a private family matter, including the challenges that Mayor Small and his wife have dealt with raising a teenage daughter," Jacobs said.
The president and vice president of the Atlantic City Board of Education did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Monday.
Earlier this month, Small held a news conference in City Hall to say that a search of his home in late March involved “a private family issue,” not a crime.