Katuria D’Amato testifies she doesn’t recall telling cops about lasers

The estranged wife of former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato testified Thursday in the couple’s child custody case she didn’t remember telling police anything about lasers after placing a 911 call about a possible home intrusion that led to her involuntary hospital stay.

Katuria D’Amato’s account followed earlier police testimony that she said on Sept. 30 that she’d unsuccessfully been trying to load a shotgun to protect against intruders who hid behind lasers and wanted to kidnap her.

But the 52-year-old attorney said Thursday she had no psychiatric history, and while suffering “perpetual pain” from a 2012 car crash, only had taken Ritalin and a muscle relaxer in the hours before police came to her Lido Beach home.

The psychiatrist who treated Katuria D’Amato during her hospital commitment had testified he believed she had experienced drug-induced psychosis from taking too much Ritalin for her ADHD.

The witness also told state Supreme Court Justice Joseph Lorintz on Thursday she heard Alfonse D’Amato telling police she was “crazy” and that she thought she’d been photographing lasers hours earlier. But Katuria D’Amato testified she’d actually taken pictures “of the moon on the ocean.”

The witness said she called police because she saw a shadow on a home security camera, and on Sept. 30 never tried to use the shotgun that police seized from her home. She said it was secured with a cable lock and she’d bought the weapon legally in 2014 because of her security concerns.

Katuria D’Amato said those concerns included a gunpoint assault on a neighbor, nearby house break-ins and the attempted assassination of her husband’s poker buddy, politically influential developer and Oheka Castle catering hall owner Gary Melius.

“As everyone here knows, Gary is my husband’s great friend. And Gary, somebody tried to assassinate him,” Katuria D’Amato said, referencing a February 2014 shooting at the historic Huntington catering hall that remains unsolved.

The witness added that she and her husband’s lawyers had negotiated a legal agreement whereby the D’Amato children, ages 8 and 10, aren’t allowed to be around Melius.

The former senator’s Garden City attorney, Stephen Gassman, later called that testimony “totally irrelevant,” before adding: “We find a lot of the testimony incredible and I think cross-examination will bring that out.”

Katuria D’Amato further testified during questioning by her Garden City attorney, Thomas Liotti, that her husband verbally abused her and the children — a day after her husband accused her of treating their son the same way.

Lorintz is holding the hearing to decide whether the former senator should keep temporary custody of the children as the couple divorces — as he ordered after Alfonse D’Amato questioned his wife’s mental stability.

Katuria D’Amato has said her husband, 80, sought custody of the children to punish her for filing for divorce Oct. 3. Her testimony, which the judge cut short after she broke down in tears, resumes Friday.