Constance Days-Chapman with her attorney, Lee Vartan.
The case against an Atlantic City High School principal accused of failing to report alleged abuse against the city's mayor and schools superintendent will go on.
Constance Days-Chapman faces several counts of official misconduct along with endangering the welfare of a child and hindering for allegedly notifying Mayor Marty Small and Dr. La'Quetta Small about their teenage daughter's allegations of abuse, rather than calling the Division of Child Protection and Permanency hotline, as required.
Her attorney argued for dismissal of the indictment making several claims, including that criminal charges have never been filed in such instances. Instead, Lee Vartan alleges that Day-Chapman is collateral damage in the state's goal of prosecuting the Smalls, who are her close friends.
But Judge Bernard DeLury disagreed that any of the defense's arguments would lead to dismissal of the grand jury's indictment.
He wrote in his decision that the "disputed issues are appropriately reserved for determination at trial."
DeLury's decision issued Wednesday comes two days after Vartan added to his motion audio the state provided that he said proves this is the first of its kind.
The March 29, 2024, audio file is a phone call Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office Detective Sgt. Ryan Ripley had when he called the DCPP hotline to notify them that a criminal complaint was filed against Days-Chapman.
The DCPP agent's response is telling, Vartan said.
“Cause, I mean, I always hear, you know, that they’re going to be prosecuted for failure to report but I’ve never actually heard of anybody ever getting charged, you know, with failure to report,” the agent replied, according to a letter Vartan sent to the court Monday.
"Sgt. Ripley did not testify to this statement when he was the sole witness in front of the grand jury," Vartan writes, adding that a grand jury “cannot be denied access to evidence that is credible, material, and so clearly exculpatory.”
DeLury did address the new information in his decision.
"While the novelty or uncommon nature of the prosecution may be noteworthy, it does not bear directly on whether the state presented prima facie evidence that the accused committed the charged offense, he wrote. "The grand jury's function is to determine whether the state presented some evidence to establish a crime has been committed."
He continued that "the rarity of enforcement does not negate the viability of the charge itself."
Vartan now is looking at his next step.
"We’re assessing our options after we review the opinion more fully," he told BreakingAC.
Days-Chapman is due back in court July 17, when argument also is scheduled for the Smalls.
