Marty and La'Quetta Small talk before their arraignment.
Marty and La’Quetta Small were just concerned parents desperate to keep their teen daughter from a “juvenile delinquent” who was encouraging the girl to engage in sex and marijuana use, according to motions filed by both sides.
Defense attorneys for Atlantic City’s mayor and schools superintendent will argue Tuesday for dismissal of the child abuse case against them.
The pair were criminally charged last April for allegedly assaulting the then-16-year-old girl. In September, both were indicted for child endangerment.
The mayor faces additional charges of aggravated assault and terroristic threats for allegations that include the girl being beaten unconscious with a broom.
It’s those additional allegations against Marty Small that are part of the 72-page motion to dismiss authored by Dr. La’Quetta Small’s attorney.
The grand jury presentation “mingled and intertwined the testimony against each defendant in a manner that was confusing, unnecessarily and prejudicially repetitive, and likely led to the grand jury improperly assigning culpability to Defendant La'Quetta Small based upon accusations and evidence against her husband and Co-Defendant Marty Small,” defense attorney Michael Schreiber writes.
The transcript of that presentation — which is heavily redacted from the motion that the state Judiciary made public — is the only way for one to “decipher and isolate the testimony regarding those actions that only involved (Dr. Small),” Schreiber argues.
Meanwhile, the mayor’s attorney argues that Small’s alleged threats to his daughter do not rise to criminal.
The mayor "threatened to hurt her by 'earth slamming' her down the stairs, grabbing her head and throwing her to the ground, and smacking the weave out of her head," during one argument, the state claims.
Small’s comments “expresse[d] fleeting anger” or were made “merely to alarm," attorney Jordan Barbone writes, claiming they were the father’s “attempt to control and reprimand.”
“How many of us have had our parents threaten to pull our hair?” he asks. “How many of our parents have actually pulled our hair? A weave is not even real hair and the smacking of a weave not a crime of violence.”
The mayor also was separately indicted on an additional charge of witness tampering, for asking his daughter "to do him a favor and 'twist up' the story she 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," according to the affidavit of probable cause previously reported by BreakingAC.
Small pleaded not guilty to that in January, with his attorney saying the mayor was simply advising his daughter to tell the truth, making him “only 'guilty' of good parenting, not witness tampering."
Both motions place the blame for the problems in the Small household squarely at the feet of their daughter’s boyfriend.
Dr. Small “was upset and concerned … because (her daughter) was dating a boy who was not a good influence,” Schreiber writes.
He claims the boyfriend was using derogatory language toward the teen and “encouraging (her) to engage in activities, including sexual activities and ingesting marijuana.”
Schreiber also quotes a state case involving the Division of Child Protection and Permanency that found, "Sometimes a parent may cause injury to a child to protect that child from greater harm. Under those circumstances, the parent may be acting reasonably. Simply stated, the (endangering the welfare of a child) statute requires more than a mere showing of harm to a child."
The boyfriend, whose name has not been publicly released due to his age, filed a tort claim against the Smalls last April, claiming they tried to destroy evidence in the case by attempting to confiscate and destroy his iPad that the state has indicated has audio recordings of arguments that turned physical between the teen and her parents.
He also claimed the mayor had him fired from a job the mayor initially helped him to get, and that he was placed in the alternative high school because of his relationship with the Smalls’ daughter.
Judge Bernard DeLury will hear the Smalls' motions Tuesday. A written decision likely will be issued later.
Their trial is scheduled to begin July 14.
Check back for updates after oral arguments are complete.
