Rape charge dropped against former Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price
Riverside County prosecutors have dropped a rape charge against Dan Price, the former chief executive of Gravity Payments, who was accused of sexually assaulting a girlfriend at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs in 2021.
The charge against the 41-year-old founder of the Seattle-based tech company was dismissed on Tuesday due to a lack of prosecutable evidence, according to the Riverside County district attorney's office.
Price gained renown in 2015 when he took an almost 93% pay cut to raise his employees' starting salary to $70,000. But his reputation as a darling of the progressive movement was sullied in 2022 when the New York Times published an expose detailing an alleged history of abusing women — accusations he has denied.
The article, based on interviews with more than a dozen women, painted the portrait of a predatory man who used his fame to enable a pattern of abuse in his personal life, including a domestic violence accusation by his ex-wife and an alleged assault of a woman in Seattle.
It also shared the story of his former girlfriend Kacie Margis, who accused him of raping her in Palm Springs in April 2021 after she had told him she didn't want to have sex and had taken a cannabis edible to counter insomnia. The following morning, she fled her hotel room and reported the alleged rape to police.
Read more: Dan Price, CEO known for giving raises, resigns after Palm Springs rape investigation
Price stepped down from his executive role at credit card payment-processing company Gravity Payments in August 2022, saying in a statement on X that he needed "to focus full time on fighting false accusations" made against him.
"I'm not going anywhere," he vowed.
Last May, he announced that he had returned to Gravity Payments full time as an adviser to the CEO.
In September, a Riverside County grand jury indicted him on one count of rape of an unconscious victim, according to court documents. He voluntarily appeared in court and posted $55,000 in bail.
"I am going to prove that the allegation is false in court," he said in an October statement on X. "As I have said repeatedly ... I have never physically or sexually assaulted anyone."
Price, ultimately, never entered a plea in the Palm Springs case as his arraignment was postponed multiple times.
The Riverside County district attorney's office said in a statement shared with The Times that it "thoroughly reviewed all available evidence and, after careful consideration, has determined that we are unable to pursue charges against Mr. Price beyond a reasonable doubt."
Price was represented by Vicki Podberesky, a noted criminal attorney who represented the Church of Scientology in a rape case involving "That '70s show" actor Danny Masterson and represented former USC Dean Marilyn Flynn during a federal corruption investigation.
Price also has faced misdemeanor assault charges in the city of Seattle, after a woman he went to dinner with accused him of forcing unwanted kisses and grabbing her by the neck. Those charges were dropped against him in 2023, due to "proof" problems, according to the Seattle Times.
In a recent court statement, Margis said that a grand jury believed her rape allegation after hearing testimony from hotel staff, law enforcement, another witness and herself, the news outlet reported.
'But now I sit here watching that same man walk free again," she wrote. "I hope this court recognizes the strength it takes to survive something like this — to speak out, to relive it over and over and still stand tall."
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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