‘She was my best friend’: NJ mayor takes the stand in his defense in abuse trial

Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small took the stand on Friday to testify in his own defense.

Mayor Small was in an Atlantic County, New Jersey, courtroom as he faces charges involving alleged abuse of his teen daughter.

Small appeared emotional at the beginning of his testimony on Dec. 12 and said that he and his daughter had a close relationship for years.

“She meant the world to me and I would do anything to protect her,” Small said. “I was her best friend and she was my best friend.” 

The mayor went on to say that things changed as his daughter got involved with her boyfriend.

“The way he was talking to her he controlled her mind,” Small alleged on the stand.

Mayor Small described derogatory things and the orders that he said he saw in messages from her boyfriend on his daughter’s cell phone.

He also said that his daughter got upset when her parents took away her phone and, in one incident, he said that she bit his hand.

Prosecutors have claimed that Small beat his daughter with a broom, but the mayor denies these allegations.

“I did not hit my daughter with a broom. I did not hit my daughter with a bristle,” he said on the stand.

Small described the incident on the day in question and said that his daughter threw detergent on him and later picked up a butter knife.

“If it was a butter knife, a plastic knife or bat, no child should wave an object at their parent,” he said.

He also explained how they struggled with a broom and said his daughter fell and hit her head.

At the end of his testimony, Mayor Small appeared to become emotional again and explained why he wanted to testify.

“I wanted to look each and every one of you in the eye the entire time and tell you the claims were bogus,” Small said.

Small, a 51-year-old Democrat, faces charges of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, third-degree terroristic threats, third-degree aggravated assault and disorderly persons simple assault. 

His wife, La’Quetta Small, a 48-year-old superintendent of the Atlantic City Public School system, will go on trial on a later date, on second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, and disorderly persons simple assault.