Atlantic City mayor: I’m committed to my family and city while dealing with daughter abuse charges

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small said Thursday he remains committed to his family and to his city as he deals with charges that he and his wife abused their teenage daughter.

In his first public comments since prosecutors on Monday charged him and his wife, LaQuetta, the city’s superintendent of schools, with physically and verbally abusing their 16-year-old daughter and endangering her welfare, Small said he would not be distracted from his duties.

“We’ve all seen news accounts of what’s going on with myself personally,” he said in a speech at the East Coast Gaming Congress at the Hard Rock casino. “It’s just that: personal.

“But I pledge to each and every one of you, it doesn’t change my commitment, number one, to my family, and it doesn’t change my commitment here to the great city of Atlantic City,” the mayor said.

An affidavit filed in the case by the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office says the girl at one point acknowledged making up the accusations against her parents because she was angry they wouldn’t let her go out with friends.

But in many other sections, the affidavit includes detailed claims by the girl that the abuse was real, and it said she photographed bruises she said were inflicted by her parents and sent them to her boyfriend, who shared them with detectives.

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