The daughter of a woman whose longtime partner was killed in their apartment at the Cogir Potomac Senior Living facility on Valentine’s Day filed a civil suit Thursday hoping to discover why the suspect, an employee of the home, continued working there despite multiple complaints about him by fellow employees.
Marquise Emillo James of Baltimore is accused of fatally shooting Robert Fuller Jr., 87, in the head while he was in bed inside his assisted-living apartment.
James, 22, who has been charged with first-degree murder, was a medical technician at the facility. His mother also worked there as a senior director.
James worked there for about four months before he allegedly killed Fuller. Attorney Michael Belsky, of SBWD law firm filed the suit on behalf of Linda Buttrick, Fuller’s partner and roommate.
“There was a culture at Colgir to protect Mr. James and not to protect [the residents],” said Belsky. “Her life has been turned upside down. She lost the man she loved,” Belsky said of Buttrick, 77.
Buttrick wants to learn if background checks were made before James was hired and how he was permitted to keep working there.
“I’ve known Mr. Fuller all my life,” said Suzanne Caron, Buttrick’s daughter, during a Friday morning news conference. We suffered an immeasurable loss. We need to know how and why,” Coran said.
Suzanne Caron, mother of Linda Buttrick
According to Belsky, several employees at the senior living facility identified James as the person on surveillance video police released after the killing. Others pointed to James as a possible suspect in the murder, as well. Yet, James continued to work at the facility and give out medicine for 11 days between the time Fuller was murdered and James was arrested.
Following the shooting, “Cogir kept him (James) assigned as Ms. Buttrick’s medication technician. It sent him–alone–into the apartment where Mr. Fuller had been murdered. Ms. Buttrick, a woman with Parkinson’s disease, who had just discovered her partner’s body, was required to receive medications from the hands of the man she identified to police as a suspect, alone in her home, which was still a crime scene, with zero protection and no recourse,” according to a statement by the law firm.
Rather than dismiss James, Cogir management fired a nurse who had complained about James via email, according to Belsky.
“For weeks and months before the shooting, multiple Cogir of Potomac employees had expressed concerns about the behavior of medication technician Maurquise James. At least one employee told facility leadership that Defendant James was impaired on duty, mishandling resident medication, had sexually harassed at least one employee and was otherwise dangerous,” states the 59-page lawsuit.
The management team had “full knowledge and appreciation of the danger posed by one of its employees [Marquise James] and with intent, negligence, gross negligence, and/or malice chose to ignore this danger with the most outrageous and insidious dereliction imaginable,” according to a statement from SBWD law firm.
The law firm is not involved with a criminal suit in Montgomery County. Instead, the lawyers filed a civil suit seeking “aid and help” to understand how the murder happened. By filing a civil suit, the law firm now can speak with witnesses and examine testimony.
It is up to police investigators to learn the motive behind Fuller’s murder and why no other residents were targeted, Belsky said. The lawsuit he filed is “to help Linda and her family gain answers.”
The family also wants to know is his mother, in a leadership role at the same company where her son was employed, protected him, which Belsky said was alleged.
Referring to the room that Fuller and Buttrick shared, Belsky said, “That room in essence was a crime scene.”
Besides seeking to be able to interview witnesses and keep up with the criminal case, the lawsuit also seeks compensation and punitive damages in excess of $75,000.
Buttrick moved from Maine to the facility in 2023 to be with Fuller. Since the shooting, she has moved out of Cogir. Losing Fuller and having to move has placed an immense emotional toll upon her, Belsky said.
“This is anything but a frivolous lawsuit,” Belsky said, referring to comments from James’ attorney. “Linda has rights to understand,” he said.
