Atlantic City mayor indicted for allegedly asking daughter to say he didn't hurt her

Atlantic City's mayor, already accused of abusing his teenage daughter, now faces a charge that he asked her to lie about how she sustained a head injury.

Marty Small Sr., 50, was indicted Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, with third-degree witness tampering involving the girl, whom he and his wife, La'Quetta — the New Jersey seaside gambling resort city's superintendent of schools — were previously charged with assaulting and abusing.

The Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, said Marty Small, a 50-year-old Democrat, asked his daughter to “twist up” a statement she had given to investigators regarding his alleged abuse of her back in January.

"It is alleged that during the month of September 2024, while criminal charges against him were pending for abusing his juvenile daughter, J.S., the defendant asked his daughter to do him a favor and 'twist up' the story she had previously told police about alleged abuse allegations she made against him specifically by asking her to state that she tripped and fell in her room when her head was injured," prosecutors wrote.

"This was in reference to an alleged incident on January 13, 2024, when Marty Small, Sr. is alleged to have hit his daughter multiple times in the head with a broom causing her to lose consciousness," prosecutors added.

A grand jury returned the indictment for the third-degree witness tampering charge this week after the allegation previously came to light in November.

Back in November, Small's lawyer, Edwin Jacobs, called the latest charge “sheer nonsense," adding that Small asked his daughter to tell the truth about what happened.

“When a parent encourages a child to be accurate and truthful in statements to investigators, that parent is not witness tampering,” Jacobs said at the time. “That parent is doing what a good, responsible parent should do. And that is precisely what Marty Small has done.”

Jacobs called the charge “one more effort by the prosecuting authority to second-guess my client's parenting and corrupt his relationship with his daughter.”

In a new statement released following the indictment, Jacobs said, "it is very unusual for discussions between parents and their children to be of any interest whatsoever to a county prosecutor."

"This indictment proves the old addage: a grand jury can indict a ham sandwich," Jacobs wrote. "This is especially true when the indictment is good for grabbing a headline."

The attorney did not say at the time whether the teen was still living at home with her parents. As recently as the early fall, Small said she was doing so.

NBC10 reached out to Small on Wednesday for any new comment.

Prosecutors allege that Small asked his daughter to contradict her previous claim of being abused while knowing 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 hit and emotionally abused the girl, who was 15 to 16 years old, on occasions last winter. The couple deny the allegations.

Prosecutors said that on Jan. 13, Marty Small hit his daughter multiple times in the head with a broom, causing her to lose consciousness. Ten days earlier, they said, Small argued with his daughter, grabbing her head, throwing her to the ground and threatening to throw her down the stairs. The mayor also is accused of punching his daughter in the legs, causing bruising.

La’Quetta Small is accused of punching her daughter multiple times on the chest, leaving bruising. She is also accused of dragging her daughter by the hair and striking her with a belt on her shoulders, leaving marks.

The couple pleaded not guilty to the original charges earlier this year.