Amirah Iman-Thiam, the wife of global music star Akon, is suing Publix Super Markets following what can only be described as a frightening and profoundly traumatizing experience at one of its Georgia stores.
“Rather than this being a simple trip to the grocery store, what occurred on the evening of September 29, 2022, was a life-altering experience,” the victims wrote in court documents. Iman-Thiam, an artist and rising star with Akon’s Konvict Muzik label, says she was sexually assaulted by a stock clerk with a history of erratic behavior named Jonathan Ross. It happened at a Publix in Roswell, where Ross allegedly abandoned his post and lingered near the organic snack section, watching her instead of performing his assigned tasks.
What followed, as described in chilling detail in the legal filing, happened in seconds. During the time Iman-Thiam was scanning her groceries, Ross was accused of coming up from behind and saying to her, “That dress had me rethinking my lunch break,” then groping her. It was a brief encounter, but the effect was long.
Video captured on surveillance and police bodycams showed Iman-Thiam in an emotional and visibly disturbed state, shaking through her words as she told officers, “He just… violated me.” Ross admitted moments later and was later found guilty of sexual battery.
But for Iman-Thiam, that wasn’t where the attack ended. The trauma spilled over into her professional life: She had to cancel a 12-city European tour that would have guaranteed her $287,000 in fees and collaborations with Grammy-winning producers. The ripple effects extended further: an anticipated multi-million dollar tour across Africa and the UAE was instantly scrubbed, and with it, she was set to have made $4 million.
In the lawsuit filed in Fulton County Superior Court, Iman-Thiam’s lawyers assert that Publix is guilty of gross negligence, citing an absence of written sexual harassment protocol and a frightening pattern of 19 others like it at Publix stores since 2020 as evidence. Despite his behavior history, they contend that Ross’s access to consumer areas made this attack “as predictable as a Tuesday BOGO sale.”
Iman-Thiam, a religious Muslim, also faced massive cultural and spiritual fallout. She then spent a year being subjected to “cleansing” rituals led by an Imam in Senegal, praying and taking daily baths as purification, the court heard. Her description to her therapist: “My creativity’s gone.”
Now the fight is over whether Publix can be held liable for the actions of a worker for whom the company says it is not liable in this case because he was “acting outside the scope of his employment.” But with depositions looming and Publix having quietly earmarked $4.2 million for “customer incident resolutions” shortly after Ross’s conviction, the lawsuit may become a reckoning not just for the chain but also for the extent to which corporate policies shield or fail to shield the people they serve.
“This wasn’t a rogue employee,” Iman-Thiam’s lawyer said. “This was a broken system that was weaponized against women.”
Iman-Thiam isn’t simply seeking justice for herself but confronting the kind of corporate indifference that lurks all too often behind the produce hall.
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