Metro

Accused Etan Patz killer makes court appearance; will plead not guilty

He no longer believes his own confession — and he’ll take that to a jury.

Pedro Hernandez, the mentally-troubled accused killer of iconic missing child Etan Patz, was formally informed of the murder and kidnapping indictment against him in Manhattan this morning, as his lawyer blasted prosecutors for proceeding with the case and said his client now believes he is innocent and will aggressively fight the charges.

“He will plead not guilty,” said the lawyer, Harvey Fishbein — taking care to specify that his client will seek the dismissal of the case or, failing that, an acquittal at trial.

Hernandez is still under psychiatric treatment, but has been found mentally fit for trial.

“This is not a case of not guilty by insanity,” the lawyer told reporters after a short proceeding in Manhattan Criminal Court this morning.

“That refers to, ‘I did it, but I did it as a result of my mental disease or defect,” he said. “That is not the case here.

“And that’s why the really sad part about this case, besides that my client has to go through what he is going through, is that this trial will take time, will take money, and will not tell the city — and unfortunately it will not tell the Patz family — what happened to Etan Patz.”

Hernandez, who was an 18-year-old clerk at the SoHo bodega that Patz assumedly walked past on the day he disappeared, appeared pale and thin as he stood calmly before Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Anthony Ferraro this morning, shorn of the gray goatee and fringe of dark hair depicted in the mug shot from his May arrest.

He was rear-cuffed and wore a gray tee-shirt and gray sweatpants. He peeked briefly over his shoulder to the audience before being led off. His wife, Rosemary, and daughter, Becky, gave him a brief smile.

Hernandez confessed and was arrested after investigators followed another family member’s “tip” that Hernandez was talking about having done “something bad” in the past to an unnamed child.

“They expected the case to end before this date, and they’re appalled and extremely disappointed that the case is now proceeding,” said family lawyer Robert Gottlieb.

“As far as the family is concerned, it is a false confession,” Gottlieb said. “They have lived with him they know who he is and what he has been suffering with. They don’t believe for a moment that that confession is truthful,” Gottlieb said, calling the family “very shaken today” to see Hernandez handcuffed in court.

The bi-polar schizophrenic from Maple Shade, NJ, has a 20-year-documented psychiatric record, and is unwell enough to have suffered from auditory and visual hallucination, and has an IQ in the borderline-to-mild mental retardation range, Fishbein said.

During the brief hearing, Fishbein and lead prosecutor Armand Durastanti said that they will not challenge the finding by court-appointed shrinks that Hernandez is mentally fit to proceed under New York’s low standard of fitness.

Hernandez’s now-self-disavowed confession remains virtually the sole evidence against him, Fishbein told reporters outside court, calling his client’s series of arrest admissions flawed by Hernandez’s mental illness and low intelligence and “police coercion.”

The lawyer declined to comment on what law enforcement sources are describing as a mid-confession moment of group prayer among Hernandez and his police investigators — a bizarre, caught-on-tape break in the interrogation prompted by Hernandez asking cops to join him in invoking Jesus Christ.

“If such a thing occurred it would be manipulative,” and subject to the defense attack on the confession, Fishbein said.

The lawyer also said he will be very interested to receive the full, statutorily-required details of the police investigation into the prior suspect in the disappearance, Jose Ramos, which he termed “quite considerable” and of great use in exonerating his own client.

Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Anthony Ferrara sent the case for arraignment to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley, before whom Hernandez will plead not guilty on Dec. 12.