A childhood pal of Etan Patz broke down on the stand Monday during testimony that was emotional as it was heated.
Testifying in the second trial for accused Patz murderer Pedro Hernandez, Chelsea Altman burst into tears upon seeing a photo of a smiling Etan in a striped shirt, taken just two months before May 25, 1979, the day the 6-year-old vanished forever.
“That’s Etan,” said Altman, 44, with tears in her eyes.
“Is that how you remember him?” asked prosecutor Joel Seidemann.
“Yes,” she replied, before bursting into tears and telling jurors, “I just need one second.”
On cross examination, Altman knocked heads with defense lawyer Harvey Fishbein, who grilled the mother-of-two about statements she made to police in the 1980s about Etan’s imaginary friend “Johnny.”
The defense suggests — as they had at Hernandez’s first trial last year — that “Johnny” is a real man named Jose Ramos, a longtime suspect who is now serving time for child molestation. He was dating Etan’s caretaker around the time he went missing.
Just before Etan went missing, his family was supposed to spend the weekend at the Altman’s country home, a trip she and Etan were “excited” about, she testified.
But Fishbein contended Altman — who was also 6 years old in 1979 — told a detective nine years later that Etan didn’t want to go because “he had to meet Johnny,” a man who gave him candy and “loved him.”
The lawyer questioned her about telling cops then that “Etan was very afraid of [his mother] Julie finding out about Johnny and when they ran away together, Johnny promised him a lot of presents.”
“I don’t remember this interview,” said Altman, growing increasingly agitated.
“I’m sorry. I’m frustrated,” she then told Fishbein.
Fishbein also probed Altman on a police report from 1985 that indicated she told cops that “Johnny” was in fact a real person.
“I don’t remember that,” she answered.
“Is that because you felt that Johnny was real and you don’t want to say that today?” Fishbein pressed, after offering to show her a police report.
“It is my feeling as a 44-year-old person that he is imaginary from my game [I played]. That is my true and honest feeling about Johnny and that’s all I can know definitively,” Altman snapped.