A federal appeals court has upheld a $4.7 million jury verdict against two former officials in the Medicaid fraud unit of the state Attorney General’s office who were accused of presenting false evidence to a grand jury.
A unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held Friday that John Fusto, a former special assistant attorney general and Jose Castillo, an investigator, were not entitled to the qualified immunity afforded prosecutor—and that the verdict was proper even though the falsification took the form of omissions rather than affirmatively untruthful statements.
Dr. Leonard Morse, a dentist for 30 years in Park Slope Brooklyn, was charged in 2006 with billing more than $1 million to Medicaid for procedures he did not perform. A 2007 bench trial before state Supreme Court Justice John Walsh resulted in an acquittal after the testimony of three former patients did not substantiate the charges.