ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Atlantic City’s mayor, already accused of abusing his teenage daughter, now faces a new charge that he asked her to lie about how she suffered a head injury.
Marty Small Sr., 50, was charged Monday with witness tampering involving the girl, whom he and his wife, La’Quetta — the superintendent of schools for the New Jersey coastal gambling resort — had previously been accused of assaulting and abuse.
The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office said Marty Small, a Democrat, asked his daughter to “distort” a statement she made to investigators about his alleged abuse of her in December and January.
Specifically, the mayor is accused of asking his daughter to falsely say she suffered a head injury when she tripped and fell in her room.
Small’s attorney, Edwin Jacobs, called the latest charges “pure nonsense,” adding that Small asked his daughter to tell the truth about what happened.
“If a parent encourages a child to make accurate and truthful statements to investigators, that parent is not a witness to tampering,” he said Wednesday. “That parent is doing what a good, responsible parent should do. And that’s exactly what Marty Small did.”
Jacobs called the charges “another attempt by the prosecutor to cast doubt on my client’s parentage and corrupt his relationship with his daughter.”
The lawyer does not want to say whether the teenager still lives with her parents. Last month, Small said she did.
Prosecutors allege Small asked his daughter to refute her previous claim of abuse when they knew 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 occasionally beat and emotionally abused the girl, who was 15 to 16 years old, last winter. The couple denies the allegations.
Prosecutors said Marty Small hit his daughter in the head several times with a broom on Jan. 13, causing her to lose consciousness. Ten days earlier, they said, Small argued with his daughter, grabbed her head, threw her to the ground and threatened to throw her down the stairs. The mayor is also accused of hitting his daughter in the legs, causing bruises.
La’Quetta Small, 47, is accused of hitting her daughter in the chest multiple times, causing bruises. She is also accused of dragging her daughter by the hair and hitting her on the shoulders with a belt, leaving marks.
The couple pleaded not guilty to the original charges last month. Marty Small has set a court hearing on the witness tampering charge for December 3.
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