Metro

Son of bandleader Artie Shaw pleads not guilty to batons — and rifles, bullets and guns

A tattoo artist to the stars — whose dad was legendary bandleader Artie Shaw — pleaded not guilty to weapons charges today for the cache of firearms, knives and ammo found in his downtown storage facility.

Jonathan Shaw, 57, of Manhattan, whose celebrity clients include Johnny Depp and Kate Moss, was charged in an 89-count indictment with possessing an AK-47 loaded with 31 rounds, a Mossberg 12-guage shotgun, a loaded .30 caliber semiautomatic rifle, nearly 3,000 rounds of ammo, and 83 knives, the bulk of them illegal switchblades and gravity knives.

Cops also found eight expandable batons — not the sort his father used leading big bands throughout the swing era.

Shaw made lip-zipping motions at reporters who asked for comment as he left Manhattan Supreme Court today — free on what prosecutors described as $250,000 bail from $1.5 million in mortgage-free family property.

Shaw was busted in November after hiring movers to collect personal items from Manhattan Mini Storage on South Street. The movers — who were to take the belongings to a 10th Avenue shipping company en route to Shaw’s new address in LA — allegedly spotted the weaponry and alerted authorities.

Shaw at first played coy when an NYPD detective, posing as one of the shippers, called him to report his belongings accidentally “damaged” in hopes of luring him back to the cache. He hung up — leaving cops to track him down to the Hotel Roger Williams at 131 Madison Ave. two hours later and arrest him.

“Defendant said he knew it was a setup when they (the police) called and said they were the truck company,” according to police statements released after Shaw pleaded not guilty.

“Defendant said he knew it was about the guns and that his personal assistant called him and said the cops were looking for him but had the wrong name,” the statements continued.

“Defendant said he bought the AK at a shop down on Houston St about 10 years and bought the other guns in New York City years ago.

“Defendant claimed he wasn’t trying to run from the cops, he just wanted to get a lawyer first. Defendant added that he had been calling around for one all night and finally got a lawyer,” the statements concluded.

“The defendant’s illegal weapons cache endangered workers and customers at the storage facility and in the entire community,” Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance said after the court appearance.

Prosecutors say that among the weaponry was:

— a Norinco AK-47 assault weapon loaded with 31 rounds of ammo

— a Mossbeg 12-guage pump-action pistol

— a Universal model M1 .30-caliber semiautomatic rifle

–A British Lee-Enfield .30-caliber pistol

–A pellet rifle

— a total of 3,000 rounds of ammo

–More than 80 knives knives, including 66 illegal switchblades and 2 gravity knives

— two daggers and a bayonet

— An assortment of metal knuckles, blackjacks and expandable batons and bludgeons

Shaw has claimed through a lawyer that he is a collector who bought the weapons legally 15 or more years ago.

“If they went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they would find a cache of weapons there, too — that whole Medieval section,” said Shaw’s lawyer, Stacey Richman. “There is absolutely nothing nefarious here.”