Atlantic City mayor and wife formally indicted on child abuse charges

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Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. and his wife, La’Quetta Small, superintendent of the city’s schools, were formally indicted by a grand jury on allegations that they abused their teenage daughter.

The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office announced Wednesday that the Smalls were indicted for second-degree endangering the welfare of a child. Marty Small was separately indicted on third-degree terroristic threats and third-degree aggravated assault, officials said.

Both were charged on a summons in April, which included disorderly persons simple assault charges.

By law, prosecutors present all first- to fourth-degree offenses to a grand jury for indictment. Disorderly persons charges are not indictable crimes, but are still heard by the court.

The allegations from the prosecutor’s office stem from several incidents that took place between December 2023 and January 2024, where the couple subjected their daughter to physical and emotional abuse. Prosecutors say during a Jan. 3, 2024 incident, Marty Small threatened to hurt his daughter by “earth slamming” her down the stairs, grabbing her head and throwing her to the ground.

In separate incidents, prosecutors allege La’Quetta Small punched her daughter multiple times in the chest leaving bruises, dragged her by her hair and punched her in the mouth during an argument.

Constance Days-Chapman, principal of Atlantic City High School and a political ally of Marty Small, was indicted last week for not reporting child abuse allegations to authorities, as required by law.

Small and his attorney, Ed Jacobs, have maintained that no abuse was committed.