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 sustained a head injury.
Marty Small Sr., 50, was charged Monday with 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 said Marty Small, a Democrat, asked his daughter to “twist up” a statement she had given to investigators regarding his alleged abuse of her on occasions in December and January.
Specifically, the mayor is accused of asking his daughter to falsely say that a head injury occurred when she tripped and fell in her room.
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,” he said Wednesday. “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.”
The attorney did not say whether the teen is still living at home with her parents. As recently as last month, Small said she was doing so.
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, 47, 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 last month. Marty Small has a court date on the witness tampering charge set for Dec. 3.
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