Supervisor obstruction of protected discrimination report
Company: Riot
The claim, verbatim
After the plaintiff reported the racial slur to HR, supervisor Rusty Knight pulled him aside and made inconsistent statements attempting to serve as a character witness for the accused coworker, suggesting the slur was actually the word 'Megger' (a tool name).
Source (primary)
Howell v. Riot Platforms Inc — Entry #1: COMPLAINT WITH JURY DEMAND against All Defendants filed by Coronet Howell (RECAP (purchased via PACER), court_filing)
View cached copy (2026-09-26)Live source ↗
Quote: “Upon hearing the racial slur, Mr. Howell immediately reported the incident to human resources (HR). The same week as reporting the racial slur to HR, Mr. Knight pulls Mr. Howell aside for a 'one v. one' conversation that took place at the work site. During this discussion it is alleged that Mr. Knight was attempting to essentially serve as a character witness for Jacob Conkel, explaining that 'he would never say something like that' and claiming that it wasn't the 'N-word' but rather 'Megger'”
How we checked this
Checked on September 28, 2026. The cited source supports every part of this claim.
Paragraphs 13-14 describe each of these points. They are the plaintiff's allegations.
Confirmed in the source:
- The complaint alleges the plaintiff reported the racial slur to HR
- The complaint alleges supervisor Rusty Knight pulled him aside for a one-on-one conversation the same week
- The complaint alleges Knight tried to serve as a character witness for Jacob Conkel
- The complaint alleges Knight claimed the word was 'Megger,' a name for a megohmmeter tool
- The complaint alleges Knight made inconsistent statements about whether he was present
What we did: Read our cached copy of RECAP (purchased via PACER) (https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.415502/gov.uscourts.txnd.415502.1.0.pdf) in full (22,976 characters, retrieved September 26, 2026) and checked each assertion in the claim against it.
Additional evidence
confirms Howell v. Riot Platforms Inc — Entry #1: COMPLAINT WITH JURY DEMAND against All Defendants filed by Coronet Howell
Quote: “Upon hearing the racial slur, Mr. Howell immediately reported the incident to human resources (HR). The same week as reporting the racial slur to HR, Mr. Knight pulls Mr. Howell aside for a 'one v. one' conversation that took place at the work site. During this discussion it is alleged that Mr. Knight was attempting to essentially serve as a character witness for Jacob Conkel, explaining that 'he would never say something like that' and claiming that it wasn't the 'N-word' but rather 'Megger'”