Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. has been indicted on a witness tampering charge for allegedly asking his daughter to “twist up” a story she told police about being physically abused.
According to the indictment, the 50-year-old Democrat asked his juvenile daughter to “do him a favor” and recant claims she had made to investigators about the alleged abuse, the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office said in a press release Wednesday.
Small, who was previously charged with abusing his teen daughter, specifically asked her “to state that she tripped and fell in her room when her head was injured,” according to prosecutors.
The embattled mayor and his wife, Atlantic City Public Schools Superintendent La’Quetta Small, are accused of physically and emotionally abusing their 16-year-old daughter on several occasions between 2023 and January 2024.
The mayor was charged with hitting the teen multiple times in the head with a broom causing her to lose consciousness — allegations he has strongly denied, referring to the incident as a “private family matter.”
His wife, who’s charged with child endangerment, also denies any wrongdoing.
On Wednesday, Small’s attorney referred to the most recent indictment as “another clumsy effort by the county prosecutor to intrude into the private and confidential conversations among members of Marty Small’s family.”
“It proves the old saying of many lawyers, judges and prosecutors that you can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich,” attorney Edwin Jacobs said in a statement.
In September, the principal of Atlantic City High School, Constance Days-Chapman, was indicted on charges of endangering the welfare of a child and related offenses for failing to notify authorities of the alleged child abuse involving Small’s daughter.
She pleaded not guilty to the charges in October.
With News Wire Services
