On the morning of Valentine’s Day, a woman woke up to find her partner, a man she’d known for 40 years, lying in blood-soaked sheets inside their home at a senior living facility in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Robert Fuller Jr. was found by a caregiver after he’d been shot in the head at the Cogir of Potomac senior living facility on Feb. 14.
Linda Buttrick filed a lawsuit Thursday against the facility and a former medicine technician who is charged with killing the millionaire philanthropist.
The 59-page complaint alleges Cogir failed to intervene when employees reported Maurquise James’ concerning behaviors and the facility failed to protect Buttrick after the killing.
According to the lawsuit, James’ mother used her position as a senior director at Cogir to suppress complaints and to discipline employees who reported her son.
James was arrested and charged on Feb. 24 with first-degree murder in the 87-year-old’s death. He has also been charged with the attempted first-degree murder of a Maryland State Police trooper and other charges stemming from a traffic stop that same day.
Buttrick’s lawyers and her daughter hope the lawsuit will encourage people with information to come forward.
“We have no idea how this could have happened,” said Suzanne Caron, Buttrick’s daughter. “We entrusted our family to the care of this facility and its employees, and we have now sought some help to find answers. We’ve suffered an immeasurable loss, and the trauma is ongoing, and we need to know why and how.”
The lawsuit was filed by SBWD Law and attorneys Michael Belsky and Catherine Dickinson on Thursday in Baltimore County.
“What we don’t understand and what we don’t know is how it was able to institutionally happen,” Belsky told reporters Friday. “How a nursing home, as alleged in the complaint, was able to turn a blind eye to complaints set forth by employees at the facility.”
When reached by WTOP for comment, a Cogir representative said the facility is working closely with authorities as they investigate and that no further details could be provided.
“Out of respect for those involved, and to preserve the integrity of the investigation, we cannot share any additional details,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.
Employees accuse James of sexual harassment, being intoxicated at work
Just 11 days before the shooting, a nurse filed a formal complaint alleging James sexually harassed another employee in October and had been hostile toward her for reporting the misconduct.
“Since then, Maurquise has been allowed to work while under the influence, has acted erratically, and has pre-poured medication — a violation for which another employee was fired,” the letter reads, as shared in the complaint.
The nurse who filed the complaint against James was fired. The lawsuit alleges James didn’t face consequences at work for the reported behaviors.
Concerns about medicine technician
The night before the killing, James gave Buttrick her medication in applesauce by hand, inside the pair’s apartment — a home that cost about $20,000 a month.
Some 20 minutes later, he came back to ask her if the oxycodone had kicked in. Buttrick said that question was unusual.
It’s her belief that James intentionally gave her too much medication. Buttrick slept in a room near Fuller’s, but the sound of the gunshot didn’t wake her up.
The same morning of the shooting, Buttrick flagged James as a potential suspect to police.
According to the complaint, employees also recognized James on footage police released of the suspected killer. But James was allowed to continue working with patients as usual, the complaint says.
“That room was in essence a crime scene, and for days and weeks following the murder, he continued to be her medication technician, in spite of the knowledge that he had been identified as a person of interest or a suspicious person,” Belsky said.
Following Fuller’s killing, Buttrick asked that the locks be changed on her apartment. Cogir changed the locks a week and a half later, the complaint states.
In the meantime, the complaint says no extra security was provided to Buttrick.
The lawsuit flags security concerns at the facility, including a door that was allegedly propped open for weeks without raising alarms. James used that side door on the night of the shooting and again on Feb. 23 before his arrest.
How the killing impacted Buttrick
After living alone for 14 years, Buttrick moved from Maine to Montgomery County in 2023 to live with Fuller.
“My mother moved here in December of 2023, but we’ve known Mr. Fuller since I was a little girl,” said her daughter, Caron. “He’s been a friend of our family all my life.”
Both Fuller and Buttrick had been previously married to partners who died.
“Buttrick moved from Maine to Rockville to be with the man that she loved,” Belsky said. “She uprooted her life.”
The two had been friends for decades. According to the complaint, Fuller paid for a construction project to combine two apartment units for the pair to live in together.
“They decided they did not want to be alone, and they did not want to be without each other. Mr. Fuller asked Ms. Buttrick to come to Potomac, and he promised he would take care of her,” the complaint reads.
The pair had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and spent their time together enjoying activities such as bingo, according to the complaint.
In the days after Fuller’s death, Buttrick experienced anxiety that caused her to shake and caused her heart to race, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit alleges Fuller’s killing caused Buttrick psychological and mental health injuries, and cost her large amounts of money. She no longer lives in the senior living facility.
Fuller served as Maine’s assistant attorney general in the late 1960s and founded his own law firm. In his retirement, he made donations to a shelter for women veterans, a children’s reading room and the refurbishing of a school’s athletic field, according to the lawsuit.
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