Atlantic City mayor blasts raid on home

Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small dismissed swirling rumors Monday following a law enforcement search of his home last week.

Small said during a news conference the search was connected to a family matter, not any sprawling corruption scandal.

“I have nothing to hide,” Small said.

“There’s no corruption. We don’t have Atlantic City Housing Authority money in our house. We don’t have City of Atlantic City money in our house. I didn’t steal anything. My wife didn’t bring Atlantic City Board of Education money to our house as alleged. No, we don’t have drugs in our house and no, we don’t have guns,” he said.

He said the Atlantic County prosecutor’s office took laptops and cell phones from his home last Thursday.

“They did all of this just for a cell phone and laptops because they want to think that there’s some kind of communication going on,” he said.

Small shares the home with his wife, Dr. La’Quetta Small, the superintendent of Atlantic City Public Schools.

The mayor said the investigation, which he was aware of, started several months ago. He provided no other details about what the investigation entailed.

He noted that there was no truth to “rumors” his teenage daughter was pregnant and had been struck by his wife or him so hard that she lost the baby or babies.

“The most egregious rumor today is that my daughter was pregnant with twins. And I beat the s--t out of her so bad that I killed the babies. And I’m going to be charged with double, double murder. And the other one, during the raid, that they were looking for evidence of a miscarriage in my home,” the mayor said.

Small and his attorney would not answer a reporter’s questions regarding an alleged report of abuse by his daughter to a school staff member.

However, he also discussed the arrest of Atlantic City High School Principal Constance Days-Chapman — Small’s former campaign manager — who allegedly did not notify the proper authorities when a juvenile student made an abuse claim against their parents.

“There’s a lot of politics going on and I’m going to let the media connect the dots,” Small said.

The Atlantic County prosecutor’s office said in a statement that it followed standard operating procedure and acted professionally while executing the warrant.