Katuria D’Amato testifies police ‘perjured themselves’

Police lied when attributing to her an account about home intruders who hid behind lasers after answering a 911 call at her home last year, the estranged wife of former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato testified Friday.

“I’m alleging that they perjured themselves,” Katuria D’Amato, 52, said at a Mineola hearing that is part of the couple’s ongoing child custody battle.

State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Lorintz is deciding whether the former senator, 80, should keep temporary custody of the D’Amato children, ages 8 and 10, as the parents divorce.

Lorintz gave temporary custody to the ex-senator after he questioned Katuria D’Amato’s mental stability following the Sept. 30 police response to her Lido Beach home — an event leading to her involuntary hospital stay.

Police previously testified Katuria D’Amato told them she’d been trying unsuccessfully to load a shotgun to protect against intruders with lasers who wanted to kidnap her.

“I am here because of lying police officers,” she insisted during a cross-examination Friday by Stephen Gassman, Alfonse D’Amato’s attorney.

The witness conceded she may have told police something about people planting listening devices, but said it was actually Alfonse D’Amato who had their son hide and retrieve such devices in her home.

She added during questioning by her attorney, Thomas Liotti, that Alfonse D’Amato was someone “in a perpetual state of fury,” who recently said he “was going to put me in my grave.” But she also said during a cross-examination he’d stayed in her home regularly before Sept. 30, and they’d vacationed together in the last few years.

“These are recent allegations designed for litigation purposes,” Gassman said after court.

Liotti, however, said his client showed her estranged husband’s conduct had been problematic “for a long, long time.”

Last month, Katuria D’Amato started separate legal action alleging Nassau police acted “in concert” with the former senator and “falsely imprisoned her” after he misled them to gain an advantage in a child custody case he soon started.

The witness previously testified she didn’t remember telling police anything about lasers but heard Alfonse D’Amato do so — adding Friday that he gave police false information.

The psychiatrist who treated Katuria D’Amato at the hospital previously testified he believed she had drug-induced psychosis from taking too much Ritalin for ADHD.

She said Friday the doctor also attributed some untrue statements to her, including that she’d hidden from intruders in a closet.