Atlantic City Mayor Small pleads not guilty to witness tampering charge: officials
ATLANTIC CITY - Atlantic City's mayor, already accused of abusing his teenage daughter, is facing a charge saying that he asked her to lie about how she sustained a head injury.
Mayor Small and his wife were previously accused of physically and emotionally abusing their teenage daughter.
What we know:
The 50-year-old mayor is accused of asking his daughter to lie about her claims that he was responsible for a head injury she sustained in January 2024.
Small was charged with witness tampering involving the girl, whom he and his wife, La'Quetta — the New Jersey seaside gambling resort city's superintendent of schools — were previously charged with assaulting and abusing.
The mayor is accused of asking his daughter to falsely say that the head injury occurred when she tripped and fell in her room.
On Thursday, Mayor Small pleaded not guilty to the witness tampering charge.
The backstory:
The Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office said Marty Small, a Democrat, asked his daughter to "twist up" a statement she had given to investigators regarding his alleged abuse of her on occasions in December and January.
Small's lawyer, Edwin Jacobs, called the latest charge "sheer nonsense," adding that Small asked his daughter to tell the truth about what happened.
When a parent encourages a child to be accurate and truthful in statements to investigators, that parent is not witness tampering," he said. "That parent is doing what a good, responsible parent should do. And that is precisely what Marty Small has done."
Jacobs called the charge "one more effort by the prosecuting authority to second-guess my client's parenting and corrupt his relationship with his daughter."
Prosecutors allege that Small asked his daughter to contradict her previous claim of being abused while knowing he was about to be indicted on the original child abuse charge.
The alleged request was made two days before a grand jury indicted Marty and La'Quetta Small.
They say both parents hit and emotionally abused the girl, who was 15 to 16 years old, on occasions last winter. The couple deny the allegations.
Prosecutors said that on Jan. 13, Marty Small hit his daughter multiple times in the head with a broom, causing her to lose consciousness.
Ten days earlier, they said, Small argued with his daughter, grabbing her head, throwing her to the ground and threatening to throw her down the stairs. \The mayor also is accused of punching his daughter in the legs, causing bruising.
La’Quetta Small, 47, is accused of punching her daughter multiple times on the chest, leaving bruising. She is also accused of dragging her daughter by the hair and striking her with a belt on her shoulders, leaving marks.
The couple pleaded not guilty to the original charges October 2024.
The Source: This information is from Atlantic City officials.