Dentist smeared in Spitzer Medicaid fraud witchhunt wins $7.7 million from former governor's staff

Bite me, Eliot Spitzer.

A Brooklyn dentist whose career was ruined after the then-state Attorney General made him a poster boy for Medicaid fraud won a $7.7 million verdict Tuesday against two of Spitzer’s former investigators.

That was $1.6 million more than Dr. Leonard Morse’s expert estimated the tooth doctor lost as a result of Spitzer’s probe — and, in terms of vindication, priceless.

“It took a little more than 2,500 days, but we got to the truth,” said Morse, a 65-year-old father of six from Manhattan. “Now I feel totally vindicated.”

Morse, who accused former Spitzer deputy John Fusto and investigator Jose Castillo in the suit of fabricating evidence against him, also had some choice words for their old boss as well.

“He should be ashamed that this happened in his office, under his stewardship,” Morse said of Spitzer. “His finger prints are all over it.”

Morse’s lawyer, Jon Norinsberg, also ripped Fusto as “a perfect storm of arrogance, laziness and incompetence.”

Neither Fusto, nor Castillo, work for the AG’s office anymore.

The AG’s office had no official comment, but their lawyers in court told Federal Judge Carol Amon they will appeal the verdict.

In his closing arguments, Deputy Attorney General Christopher Miller argued that just because someone is acquitted of a crime — as Morse was earlier — doesn't mean the prosecution had fabricated evidence.

“He already had his day in court, he was found not guilty,” Miller said.

But Miller looked ashen when the jury, which took just three hours to reach a decision, asked the judge for a calculator.

Spitzer, who resigned in 2008 after getting caught in a hooker scandal, could not be reached for comment.

Morse had a thriving Park Slope practice with 30,000 patients before Spitzer zeroed in on him because 95% of his patients were Medicaid eligible.

Morse, in a $75 million suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court, charged he was the victim of a Spitzer witchhunt in 2006, when the hard-charging prosecutor was running for governor.

After Spitzer's political opponents branded him soft on Medicaid fraud, he targeted Morse, who was one of the top billers in the state, the suit claimed.

Spitzer, who resigned as governor in 2008 after getting caught in a hooker scandal, said through a spokeswoman that he had nothing to do with Morse’s case.

Morse was charged with stealing more than $1 million in false billings for dentures. And his arrest was trumpeted in a press release translated into several languages, including Russian and Korean.

But the criminal case against Morse fell apart during a bench trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court after Fusto was forced to concede that billing records only showed a theft of $3,000.

Morse was found not guilty of all charges. But he lost his practice and other dentists treated him like a leper.

The delighted dentist said the AG’s office offered him a $100,000 settlement to get him to drop the lawsuit.

“I didn’t consider it for a nano-second,” Morse said. “There’s more to life than money, but I wanted my family to know I did nothing wrong.”

Morse also won a new patient Tuesday.

As he was leaving the courtroom, one of the jurors asked him to look at his tooth.

By John Marzulli AND Corky Siemaszko / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS