Atlantic County prosecutor under fire after Small acquittal, recusal request

The aftermath of Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr.’s acquittal on child endangerment charges is continuing to unfold, with city leaders calling on the county prosecutor to resign after his request that a county commissioner recuse himself from matters involving the prosecutor’s office.

A jury acquitted Small of charges that he abused his teenage daughter in December, and Atlantic County Prosecutor William Reynolds later dropped charges against the mayor’s wife, La’Quetta Small, and Constance Days-Chapman. The former also faced child endangerment charges, while the latter was charged with failing to report the alleged abuse. 

Kaleem Shabazz, the president of Atlantic City’s NAACP and a city councilman, has now called on Reynolds to resign. 

“Upon taking my oath, I swore to uphold the laws of the State of New Jersey and the United States, and I intend to keep doing so with integrity and independence,” Reynolds wrote.

After dropping charges against Days-Chapman, the principal of Atlantic City High School, Reynolds wrote a letter asking her father, Rev. and County Commissioner Collins Days, to recuse himself on votes involving Reynolds’ office. Days refused, calling it “a bridge too far,” according to the Press of Atlantic City, and Reynolds backed off his request. 

But the letter still angered city leaders like Shabazz, a supporter of the mayor, who has alleged the case against him was politically motivated.

“Such actions appear to remove an elected official from the full exercise of his duties and, by extension, diminish the voice of the constituents he was chosen to represent,” Shabazz wrote. “The NAACP stands firmly for full civic engagement and democratic participation, and Commissioner Days has our full faith and confidence.”

In a Monday letter, Reynolds said decisions regarding recusal lie with the Board of Commissioners and said he brought up the familial connection out of caution.

“It was, and remains, the responsibility of the Commissioner and the Solicitor to the Board of County Commissioners to determine whether it is appropriate for the Commissioner to vote on any resolution touching upon the Prosecutor’s Office, and that precautionary step of raising the conflict had nothing to do with politics or race, but rather reflected this Office’s obligation.”

Prosecutors indicted Small in September 2024 on charges that he hit his teenage daughter and instructed her to lie to investigators. Small won re-election the month before his acquittal.

Reynolds was sworn into the prosecutorial role on August 9, 2022, for a five-year term.