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Key takeaways:
Maurquise James ordered to secure state hospital for mental evaluation
James accused of shooting resident Robert Fuller at Cogir assisted-living center
Lawsuit alleges Cogir negligence and poor security measures
Cogir attorney disputes claims of aiding and abetting James
A recent employee of an assisted-living center who is accused of fatally shooting an 87-year-old resident has been deemed mentally unfit to proceed to trial, according to recent Maryland court filings, as a related negligence lawsuit in the case grows ever more contentious.
Maurquise James, 22, was ordered into the care of a secure state hospital, where doctors will attempt to improve his mental wherewithal enough that he can fairly understand legal proceedings, according to court filings.
Authorities have alleged that at about 5 a.m. on Feb. 14, James – who was then a medication technician at the Cogir senior living center in Potomac – slipped into a third-floor apartment and shot Robert Fuller in the head while he was in bed. James was then seen on outdoor surveillance video fleeing the scene while wearing a wig and a mask, police said.
Ten days later, as investigators were closing in on him, they say he fired two rounds and nearly struck a Maryland state trooper during a traffic stop.
“One murder and one very near miss,” Assistant State’s Attorney Jodie Mount said in court. No trial dates have been set in either case, and for now the rulings that James is mentally incompetent have put the criminal proceedings on hold.
A spokeswoman for the Maryland public defender‘s office, which represents James, declined to comment. He has been held without bond since his arrest in late February.
It was clear early that mental health issues might play a role in the proceedings. At a Feb. 26 court hearing, while James faced Montgomery County District Judge Michael Glynn via video feed from jail, the judge authorized him to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
“Sir, the doctors are going to come talk to you. I urge you to talk to them,” Glynn said, prompting an unclear response before the judge politely wished him good luck.
“Thank you,” James said.
Evaluations eventually yielded a finding of mentally incompetent, meaning that James couldn’t fully understand court proceedings or lacked the ability to clearly communicate with a defense attorney.
Earlier court filings against James had alleged bizarre behavior before Fuller’s death.
Detectives reviewing weeks of surveillance video from the facility spotted James on Jan. 26 at 1:40 a.m. – more than two hours after his shift had ended – walking outside the facility in the snow. When he was arrested a month later, and had good reason to believe police were looking for him, he was driving around in car with ammunition scattered “all over the floorboard,” according to Mount.
There is no exact timeline for when James’s mental health might improve enough for court proceedings. He is due in Montgomery County Circuit Court for an update in the murder case on Nov. 9 and similarly due in Baltimore City Circuit Court for the attempted-murder case on Nov. 11, according to court filings.
The fatal shooting of Fuller, a charismatic and wealthy philanthropist who spent much of his life as an attorney in Maine, stunned friends and family. In retirement, he often signed his emails with the phrase “from my keyboard to God’s inbox,” ended phone conversations with an exuberant “Onward!,” and named his assisted-living apartment in Potomac “Wit’s End,” according to his obituary. A former judge advocate general’s officer with the Navy Reserve, Fuller was affectionately called “the captain” by staff members inside the assisted-living facility.
Fuller’s partner, Linda Buttrick, lived in a separate bedroom of the two-room apartment and was asleep when he was shot. On March 19, she filed a 59-page lawsuit against Cogir Senior Living USA, Cogir of Potomac and James, alleging negligence, infliction of emotional distress and other counts.
Among her claims: The facility lacked properly working security systems, and even after being warned of James’s poor work performance, the facility continued to employ him.
“This senseless killing was entirely preventable,” Buttrick’s attorneys wrote in their complaint.
In documents filed this week, an attorney for Cogir called many of the assertions in the lawsuit “inflammatory rhetoric” and sought its dismissal. Additionally, the Cogir corporate entities as described in the lawsuit didn’t know of “any violent or homicidal propensities” or imminent threat posed by James, according to the attorney, Jonathan Barnes.
Barnes specifically went after two of the lawsuit’s key claims: Cogir of Potomac’s actions amounted to “aiding and abetting” James’s conduct, and Cogir of Potomac inflicted intentional “emotional distress” on Buttrick.
Those claims rest in part on the allegation that Cogir received complaints of James’s poor work performance but shielded him from scrutiny because his mother held a senior leadership post there. “Cogir of Potomac actively protected him,” said the complaint, written by Michael Belsky.
As a result of James’s continued employment, according to Belsky, he was able to shoot Buttrick’s longtime partner as she slept nearby, leaving her traumatized. Cogir compounded the damage immediately after the killing by allowing James to continue working – and continuing duties that included bringing medication to residents like Buttrick – even as Cogir knew or should have known he was a suspect in Fuller’s murder, according to the complaint.
Barnes, Cogir’s attorney, countered that after the killing, James was not publicly identified as a suspect for 10 days – a period in which Montgomery County detectives had instructed Cogir management to “stand down from any parallel internal inquiry.”
Barnes added that the allegation that Cogir aided and abetted James’s actions merely “repackages” a less serious negligence claim. “Maryland law does not permit that maneuver,” the attorney wrote.
Barnes also asserted that the lawsuit mistakenly described the specific corporate relationships between Cogir and the Potomac facility, rendering many of the lawsuit’s claims fundamentally errant.
This argument includes how the lawsuit described Cogir Management USA, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, which does business as Cogir Senior Living USA. A website for that entity directs users to senior living centers around the country, including Cogir of Potomac. But as Barnes wrote:
“Cogir Management USA did not own, operate, manage, lease, or control the Cogir of Potomac assisted living and memory care community, did not employ defendant Maurquise James or any individual who provided services at that facility, holds no license issued by the State of Maryland for that facility, and had no involvement in or connection to the events alleged in the complaint.”
Barnes said that a second Cogir entity cited as a defendant, WELL BL Potomac Operator LLC, which does business as Cogir of Potomac, isn’t the operator of the Cogir of Potomac. “WELL BL is the licensee of record for the facility and is a distinct entity from the operator,” Barnes wrote, adding that “the day-to-day operation and management of the facility, including staffing, resident care, and security functions, is performed by the operator pursuant to a management agreement.”
The legal filings from Cogir do not state who owns or operates Cogir of Potomac. A Cogir Senior Living spokeswoman declined Friday to discuss the ownership or operating structure, citing the pending litigation.
Dan Morse covers courts and crime in Montgomery County. He arrived at the paper in 2005, after reporting stops at the Wall Street Journal, Baltimore Sun and Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He is the author of “The Yoga Store Murder.”