From The Associated Press:

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small and his wife were charged Monday with abusing and assaulting their teenage daughter on multiple occasions, including hitting her in the head with a broom and knocking her unconscious.

The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office said it filed charges against both parents of endangering the welfare of a child.

Marty Small also was charged with making terroristic threats; aggravated assault, and simple assault. La’Quetta Small was additionally charged with three separate counts of simple assault.

Reached by telephone, Small declined comment. He referred a reporter to his lawyer Ed Jacobs, who emphasized that the charges do not involve public corruption or any impropriety in the mayor’s discharge of his official duties.

Instead, they involve “a private family matter, including the challenges that Mayor Small and his wife have dealt with raising a teenage daughter,” Jacobs said.

The attorney would not address the substance of the charges regarding the couple’s interactions with their daughter. But said she has not been removed from their home.

“This is an intact family,” Jacobs said. “She’s right where she belongs.”

The president and vice president of the Atlantic City Board of Education did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Monday.

Both Smalls were issued summonses with the charges against them.

Earlier this month, Small held a news conference in City Hall to say that a search of his home in late March involved “a private family issue,” not a crime.