The indictment against Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. regarding allegations of child endangerment escalated last week when the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office added a witness tampering charge.
In September, Small, 50, and his wife, Dr. La’Quetta Small, 47, superintendent of Atlantic City Public Schools, were indicted by a grand jury on second-degree child endangerment charges. The mayor, a prominent figure in the nation’s second-largest casino market, also faced additional charges of third-degree terroristic threats and third-degree aggravated assault.
As the nation turned its attention to the 2024 election last week, the charges against Mayor Small intensified. Prosecutors accused Small of asking his daughter to lie about how she sustained a head injury, allegedly urging her to contradict her earlier statements to law enforcement.
The initial indictment included serious allegations: prosecutors claim that on January 13, 2024, the mayor struck his daughter in the head with a broomstick multiple times, causing her to lose consciousness. An earlier incident on January 3, 2024, reportedly involved Small verbally threatening to throw the teenager down a flight of stairs and to “smack the weave out” of her head. Another incident involved accusations that Small punched his daughter in the legs, resulting in bruises. Both Marty and La’Quetta Small have pleaded not guilty.
Their attorney, Ed Jacobs, dismissed the latest witness tampering charge, labeling it as “sheer nonsense” and part of a perceived smear campaign by the county prosecutor’s office. Jacobs argued that encouraging a child to be truthful is a responsible parental act, not witness tampering, and asserted that Mayor Small only sought honesty from his daughter.
It remains unclear if the Small’s daughter is still residing at home. Following a police raid of the Smalls’ residence in April, Mayor Small held a public conference with his daughter by his side, declaring the investigation a “family issue” that should remain a “private family matter.”
If found guilty, the Smalls face between five and ten years in prison and fines up to $150,000. A guilty verdict would significantly impact Atlantic City’s governance and the local public school district.
In addition to Dr. Small, Atlantic City High School Principal Constance Days-Chapman has also been implicated. Prosecutors allege that the Smalls’ daughter confided in Days-Chapman about the abuse, but the principal, instead of notifying law enforcement and child welfare authorities as required by state law and district policy, informed the mayor and his wife, her longtime friends. Days-Chapman faces eight counts, including official misconduct and child endangerment. She also serves as the president of the Atlantic City Democratic Committee.
