‘Imaginary’ pal killed Patz: att’y

ETAN PATZ’S “imaginary friend” may have been a real person — and his killer, the defense lawyer for the boy’s alleged murderer suggested Monday.

Chelsea Altman, now 44, testified as a prosecution witness at accused killer Pedro Hernandez’s retrial Monday, where she was grilled by the defense over 6-year-old Etan’s pretend playmate.

Hernandez’s defense used Altman’s old statements to investigators about her friendship with Etan in 1979 to point to an alternate suspect — convicted pedophile Jose Ramos.

Hernandez’s lawyer Harvey Fishbein painted Altman as tailoring her testimony to prosecutors’ case — and conveniently forgetting what she’s told cops over the past 37 years. Police reports show that in the 1980s, Altman said her missing pal would talk about his friend “Johnny” and that he wanted to go away with the mysterious man just before he went missing. Fishbein argues “Johnny” was really Ramos, who would have met Etan (photo) through a woman who walked the boy home. Prosecutors say all references Etan made about the person were really about his imaginary pal “Johnny France America.”

“Johnny was real, correct?” Fishbein asked Altman, a restaurateur and actress who grew up across the street from the Patzes on Prince St. in SoHo.

She said she thought “he was imaginary” and defended her inconsistent answers.Fishbein also asked her about an old interview with cops where she said, “Etan was very afraid of (his mother Julie) finding out about Johnny and that Johnny promised him a lot of presents . . . when they ran away together.”

“I don’t remember this interview,” Altman said, visibly frustrated by the line of questioning.

Hernandez was arrested in 2012 after confessing he lured Etan to the basement of a bodega near his school bus stop and choked him to death.