The mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey, was charged with witness tampering this week after he was accused of asking his daughter to “misrepresent” her previous abuse allegations against him to police, prosecutors said.
An Atlantic County grand jury indicted Mayor Marty Small Sr., 50, on Tuesday, Attorney General William Reynolds said in a news release.
Small and his wife, La’Quetta Small, the superintendent of Atlantic City Public Schools, were indicted in September on charges related to endangering the welfare of their teenage daughter. The mayor was also charged with making terrorist threats and aggravated assault. The couple pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Prosecutors alleged Wednesday that while those charges were pending, Small asked his daughter in September to reverse her previous abuse claims against him, “specifically asking her to testify that she tripped and fell in her room when her head was injured.” “
Authorities allege Small made the request because of allegations that on January 13, he repeatedly struck his daughter in the head with a broom, causing her to lose consciousness.
Small condemned the new charges in a statement on Wednesday and said his lawyer Edwin Jacobs would address any further comments.
“A bad prosecutor can charge a ham sandwich and this is what happened here,” Small said in a statement. “We look forward to beating this bulls case, Eddie Jacobs will do the rest of the talking for me.”
Jacobs did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening.
In addition to the broom incident, Small and his wife are accused of emotionally and physically abusing their daughter on several other occasions in December and January, prosecutors said in announcing the earlier charges.
During an argument on Jan. 3, the mayor threatened to harm his daughter by throwing her down the stairs, grabbing her head and throwing her to the ground, prosecutors alleged.
They also alleged that in another incident he repeatedly hit his daughter’s legs, leaving them with bruises. Prosecutors said La’Quetta Small bruised her daughter by hitting her chest repeatedly in one incident and abused her on other occasions.
Small was appointed mayor in 2019 after Frank Gilliam pleaded guilty to fraud and resigned. In 2021, he was elected to a full four-year term.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
