A man has filed a lawsuit against the Johnny Rockets restaurant chain, its parent company and other parties alleging an unauthorized use of an allegedly private video of him dancing while working at the Knott’s Berry Farm location in Buena Park nearly two decades ago.
Timura Jackson’s suit, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleged violation of privacy rights, unjust enrichment, false light and negligence. It sought unspecified damages.
Jackson reportedly worked for a Johnny Rockets restaurant in 2004. He was hired as a server, then promoted to a shift supervisor, according to the suit.
The suit stated that Johnny Rockets management regularly inspected franchise locations for quality assurance. Johnny Rockets servers were required, as part of the job, to dance. When inspectors arrived at the location where Jackson worked, he was allegedly asked to demonstrate his own dancing ability on camera.
Jackson complied, and danced in a closed restaurant with no customers present, according to the suit. The session was recorded as part of what he understood to be a corporate review. He was told that the footage would only be used for internal training purposes, Jackson claimed.
In 2020, years after departing his job at Johnny Rockets, Jackson was visiting a Las Vegas food court when he saw a Johnny Rockets promotional video playing on a digital display. The video allegedly appeared to incorporate footage of him dancing from the review session recorded in 2004.
Jackson said several people at the food court at the time, including some of his work associates, recognized him dancing in the video.
“Plaintiff was publicly humiliated in front of his associates and strangers,” the suit stated.
Johnny Rockets may have distributed the video of Jackson dancing to up to 300 locations in 26 states and several overseas locations, according to the suit.
“Plaintiff was not aware, was never informed and never consented that his likeness would be turned into promotional material that would be publicly displayed and distributed to franchises for financial gain,” the suit stated.
Settlement negotiations were unsuccessful, which prompted Jackson to file.
