ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Atlantic Metropolis Mayor Marty Small and his spouse have been charged Monday with abusing and assaulting their teenage daughter on a number of events, together with hitting her within the head with a brush and knocking her unconscious.
The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Workplace mentioned it filed expenses towards each mother and father of endangering the welfare of a kid.
Marty Small additionally was charged with making terroristic threats; aggravated assault, and easy assault. La’Quetta Small was moreover charged with three separate counts of easy assault.
The prosecutor’s workplace mentioned in a information launch that “the defendants bodily and emotionally abused their 15/16-year-old-daughter on a number of events” in December 2023 and January 2024.
It mentioned that in a single incident, Marty Small is alleged to have hit his daughter a number of instances within the head with a brush, inflicting her to lose consciousness. He is also accused of punching his daughter within the legs a number of instances, leaving bruises, and threatening to throw her down a staircase and “smack the weave out of her head,” the discharge mentioned.
LaQuetta Small, who’s Atlantic Metropolis’s superintendent of colleges, is accused of punching her daughter a number of instances within the chest, leaving bruises, and punching her within the mouth throughout a separate argument. LaQuetta Small is also accused of dragging her daughter by the hair, and putting her with a belt on her shoulders, leaving marks, based on the prosecutor’s workplace.
Reached by phone, Small declined remark. He referred a reporter to his lawyer Ed Jacobs, who emphasised that the fees don’t contain public corruption or any impropriety within the mayor’s discharge of his official duties.
As an alternative, they contain “a personal household matter, together with the challenges that Mayor Small and his spouse have handled elevating a teenage daughter,” Jacobs mentioned.
The lawyer wouldn’t deal with the substance of the fees relating to the couple’s interactions with their daughter. However mentioned she has not been faraway from their residence.
“That is an intact household,” Jacobs mentioned. “She’s proper the place she belongs.”
The president and vice chairman of the Atlantic Metropolis Board of Training didn’t instantly reply to messages looking for remark Monday.
Each Smalls have been issued summonses with the fees towards them.
Earlier this month, Small held a information convention in Metropolis Corridor to say {that a} search of his residence in late March concerned “a personal household concern,” not against the law.
Small mentioned on the information convention that he and his spouse have been interacting with state little one welfare authorities and don’t have anything to cover.
“We’re going by way of household remedy, and that’s what this must be, a household matter,” he mentioned.
A spokesman for the state Division of Baby Safety and Permanency, mentioned it can’t publicly talk about its circumstances to guard the privateness of these concerned.
Small’s spouse and two kids attended the information convention with him however didn’t communicate, and left earlier than it was accomplished.
