Don’t make us rat out Durst, pals plead

Two longtime friends of Robert Durst are fighting in a Long Island court to avoid testifying at a pretrial hearing next month for his murder case in California.

Stewart Altman, 74, a high-school classmate of Durst, and his wife, Emily, appeared Wednesday in a Mineola courtroom, where their attorneys said a request by the Los Angeles district attorney to testify at a July 24 hearing was unnecessary.

Assistant Nassau County District Attorney Veronica Guariglia, arguing on behalf of colleagues in Los Angeles, countered, “This is a criminal proceeding. It’s not for us to say this is not necessary.”

Durst, 74, an eccentric millionaire, is facing mur- der charges in Los Angeles in the 2000 death of his friend Susan Berman.

Prosecutors suspect Durst (above) shot Berman because he feared she might divulge incriminating information regarding the 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathy.

In the HBO documentary “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” he is heard muttering that he “killed them all.” He was arrested in New Orleans in 2015 just before the final episode aired.

Los Angeles prosecutors say they want to question the Altmans about their friendship with Durst, including his state of mind in 2000 when he fled to Galveston, Texas, amid questions about Kathleen.

In 2001, Durst was charged with killing a 71year-old neighbor in Galveston. While conceding he chopped up Morris Black’s body and tossed it in the sea, Durst was acquitted of murder.

Lawrence Goldman and another attorney for the Altmans declined to answer on the record at the end of the court proceeding when Guariglia asked them if Durst was paying their legal fees.

The judge said he will rule before July 5.