The mayor of Atlantic City is accused of asking his daughter to say he did not injure her

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

Marty Small Sr., 50, was charged Monday with witness tampering involving the girl, whom he and his wife, La’Quetta — the superintendent of schools for the New Jersey coastal gambling resort — had previously been accused of assaulting and abuse.

The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office said Marty Small, a Democrat, asked his daughter to “distort” a statement she gave to investigators about the matter. his alleged abuse of her occasionally in December and January.

Specifically, the mayor is accused of asking his daughter to falsely say she suffered a head injury when she tripped and fell in her room.

Small’s attorney, Edwin Jacobs, called the latest charges “pure nonsense,” adding that Small asked his daughter to tell the truth about what happened.

“If a parent encourages a child to make accurate and truthful statements to investigators, that parent is not a witness to tampering,” he said Wednesday. “That parent is doing what a good, responsible parent should do. And that’s exactly what Marty Small did.”

Jacobs called the charges “another attempt by the prosecutor to cast doubt on my client’s parentage and corrupt his relationship with his daughter.”

The lawyer does not want to say whether the teenager still lives with her parents. Last month, Small said she did.