Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small angrily complained to his wife in a 2023 voicemail that their teenage daughter was “out of her mind” and expressed fear that she would get him thrown in jail.
“I can’t take this girl no more because she will make me go to jail,” Small said to his wife, La’Quetta, while referring to their daughter.
He continued later in the voicemail, “This little girl is out of her f------ mind, and you better come get her.”
Prosecutors played a recording of the Dec. 17, 2023, voicemail Wednesday during the third day of Small’s criminal trial on charges that he beat his daughter unconscious with a broom and told her to lie later on to cover up the alleged assault.
Small is accused of abusing the now-17-year-old girl physically and verbally and ignoring the aftermath of alleged child abuse by his wife, Atlantic City Superintendent of Schools Dr. La'Quetta Small.
La’Quetta Small is set to be tried separately next month, followed by suspended Atlantic City High School Principal Constance Days-Chapman, who is accused of failing to report the child abuse allegations.
The playing of the voicemail followed dramatic testimony by the Smalls’ daughter on Tuesday in which she accused her father of abuse during an explosive argument with her parents on Jan. 13, 2024.
At one point, she was in the second-floor laundry room of their Atlantic City home when her father approached and she threw liquid detergent at him, she testified.
The girl then went to her room, where her father followed, she said.
"He picked up the broom up and hit me with it," the teen testified.
However, Small’s defense attorney, Lou Barbone, told jurors in his opening statement Monday that it was the teen who picked up the broom – along with a butter knife – to come at her father, and she wound up falling and striking her head during a tussle.
Although the daughter did not give additional testimony on Wednesday, a copy of a note she wrote to her parents on Dec. 21, 2023, was read aloud in court. The note was discovered when authorities searched the Smalls’ family residence in March 2024 while looking for evidence in the assault case.
In the note, the girl told her parents that they “must hate me for not being perfect.”
“I guess I’m the biggest disappointment just for defending myself,” she wrote.
“I’m just this sad, disappointing daughter, huh?” she continued.
Near at the end of the note, she wrote, “I’m the worst mistake that happened to y’all.”
The daughter also used the note to express her love for her teenage boyfriend.
In the afternoon, nurse practitioner Nadine Westrol testified.
She saw the Smalls Jan. 15, 2024, when the teen was brought to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center's City Campus due to her complaint of headaches to Days-Chapman at school.
The girl testified that the pain was the aftermath of the broom beating three days earlier. But Westrol was told the injury happened when the girl fell running with her brother.
Marty Small told Westrol that his daughter was out for about 10 to 20 seconds.
During cross-examination, she confirmed to Barbone that her notes indicated no signs of bruising or abuse.
The prosecution is expected to complete its case by Friday.
The defense is expected to have several character witnesses.
Barbone indicated during his opening that the mayor will take the stand in his defense.
(Staff writer Lynda Cohen contributed to this report.)
