NJ- The exotic dancer who was arrested after police found a severed hand and six human skulls in her South Plainfield home will plead not guilty, her attorney said yesterday.

Linda E. Kay, 31, remains in custody at the Middlesex County jail in North Brunswick on $100,00 bail, attorney Donald DiGioia said.

Authorities said Kay skipped her arraignment Wednesday on a charge of improper disposition of human remains and was captured two days later at her father’s Scotch Plains home.

“She denies her guilt and asserts her innocence,” DiGioia said. “She became portrayed as the skull girl, when she is actually a gentle human being.”

Police officers were dispatched to the South Plainfield house July 21 to investigate reports of a man threatening suicide with a hammer and instead made the gruesome find. Human skulls can be purchased legally online, but police are investigating where she got the formaldehyde-preserved hand.

DiGioia said he could not detail his discussion with Kay. He planned to meet with the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office this week to discuss the matter.

“This is a very unusual charge, the statute doesn’t come up very often,” he said, adding he hoped to get it dismissed.

When Kay failed to appear at her arraignment Wednesday, South Plainfield municipal court Judge John Leonard ordered her $100,000 bail forfeited, charged Kay with contempt of court and ordered another $100,000 bail.

Three homes — Kay’s South Plainfield house, her father’s house and a friend’s house — were put up to secure the original bond, and all three houses were at risk of being forfeited after Kay failed to appear for the arraignment.

Kay’s mother has said her daughter has been drawn to morbid things since she was a girl. As part of her act at the all-nude Hott 22 in Union, Kay, who went by the stage name “Zilla,” performed in dark, Goth-style outfits.

One resident at Kay’s South Plainfield home said she got the severed hand from someone who worked at a medical examiner’s office, while a former friend who stayed at the house earlier this year said Kay got the hand from a Hott 22 customer who was a medical student and has since moved to California. Both said Kay had named the hand “Freddy.”

Kay’s arrest was reported around the world, and she became a punch line on nighttime television talk shows. The experience, DiGioia said, terrified Kay.

“Obviously, the media attention was overwhelming, anyone would be overwhelmed,” DiGioia said. “This has been so horrible for her. At this juncture, she has had a great deal of exposure.”