The partner of former Augusta philanthropist and attorney Robert Gorham Fuller Jr. has filed a civil suit against the Maryland assisted living facility where he was killed and the worker there who is charged in his death.

Fuller, 87, formerly of Winthrop, was shot in the head Feb. 14 as he slept in his bed at the Cogir Senior Living USA facility in Potomac, Maryland. Maurquise James, a 22-year-old medical technician at Cogir, is charged with murder in the killing.

Fuller’s longtime friend and partner Linda Buttrick, with whom he lived, filed the suit this month in Baltimore County Circuit Court, alleging the assisted living facility and its owners, Well BL Potomac LLC and Cogir Management USA, had ignored warnings from staff that James was dangerous and allowed him to dispense medications to Buttrick after she identified him as a suspect in Fuller’s death. Fuller’s killing, the lawsuit says, “was entirely preventable.”

It happened, the lawsuit claims, because Cogir “with intent, negligence, gross negligence, and/or malice, chose to ignore this danger with the most outrageous and insidious derelictions imaginable.”

The lawsuit is seeking more than $75,000 and alleges intentional infliction of emotional distress; negligent hiring, supervision, retention and training; negligence; aiding and abetting and tortious conduct. Against James, it alleges battery, trespass to land, trespass to home, medication theft and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

A spokesperson for the company said the safety and well-being of its residents is its highest priority.

“We take all concerns raised by staff, residents and residents’ families seriously, and have clear processes to ensure every report is thoroughly reviewed and addressed,” the spokesperson said.

Facility officials are working with law enforcement on the ongoing investigation; they declined to comment on the pending lawsuit.

Michael J. Belsky of SBWD Law of Baltimore, one of the attorneys working on the case, said in a phone interview last week that Buttrick and her family are devastated by Fuller’s killing.

“They’re seeking answers as to how something like this happens at an institution that is supposed to be protecting its residents,” Belsky said.

The 60-page civil lawsuit claims Cogir employees expressed concerns to management about James for months before the killing. They reported he appeared to be impaired by substances while on duty, mishandled residents’ medications and had sexually harassed at least one staff member. A nurse who complained about his mishandling of medications was fired, the lawsuit says.

Cogir refused to investigate James, of White Marsh, Maryland, whose mother was a senior director at the company, the lawsuit claims, alleging that she and the company used her position of authority to suppress complaints about James and reprimanded employees who reported his troubling behaviors.

It says both Fuller and Buttrick suffered from Parkinson’s disease. The evening before Fuller was killed, James administered medications to them. He spoon-fed medication in applesauce to Buttrick, returning shortly thereafter to ask her if her medication had kicked in.

Buttrick said the follow-up visit was unusual. She rarely sleeps through the night yet has no memory of hearing a gunshot and believes James overmedicated her, the suit says. She was sleeping in an adjacent bedroom and a caregiver who entered the apartment shortly after 7 a.m. discovered Fuller, whose pillowcases and sheets were covered in blood.

Emergency workers initiated life-saving measures but he was pronounced dead at the scene, the Montgomery County Department of Police said.

Buttrick reported James’ unusual behavior the previous evening and identified him as the suspect. She and Cogir employees recognized him in surveillance footage released by police as the person who entered a door to the facility near the couple’s apartment early on Feb. 14.

“They sent him — alone — into the apartment where Mr. Fuller had been murdered,” the suit says. “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 had identified to police as a suspect, alone in her home, which was still a crime scene, with zero protection and no recourse.”

With James still employed by Cogir and able to enter Buttrick’s apartment at will, Buttrick remained in constant fear. Buttrick’s daughter from Maine had arrived and both were so terrified, her daughter barricaded the door, the suit says.

“Her body shook, her heart raced, and she felt physically ill each time she found herself alone in her apartment with the man she had identified to police as her partner’s suspected killer.”

Contacted last week, Buttrick’s daughter, Suzanne Caron, deferred comment to Belsky’s office.

Ten days after the killing, a Maryland state trooper stopped a vehicle being driven by James, who then shot twice at the trooper, the suit says. Ballistic tests showed the gun was the one used to kill Fuller, and James was arrested and charged with the trooper’s attempted murder.

The civil suit describes how Buttrick and Fuller met more than 40 years ago when she was a secretary at the law firm where he worked. After her husband died, she lived alone for 14 years. Fuller moved to Maryland in 2023 after the death of his wife Moira Hastings Fuller and over time, he and Buttrick developed a closer bond. He asked her to move to Maryland. They built a life together in the luxury apartment, which cost about $20,000 a month and was to include safe assisted living.

Buttrick, who had lived in Maryland for at least two years, now lives in Maine.

The criminal cases against James are proceeding.

A preliminary hearing on attempted murder and gun charges in the incident with the Maryland state trooper, originally scheduled for Thursday, has been reset for April 8.

On Friday, James waived a preliminary hearing on the first degree murder charge in the death of Fuller. His next court date in that case is April 17.