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Technology|Rape Charge Is Dropped Against Former Tech C.E.O. Dan Price
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/technology/dan-price-gravity-payments-rape-charge-dropped.html
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The owner of Gravity Payments became a prominent progressive figure on social media after raising the minimum pay at his company to $70,000.
By Karen Weise
Karen Weise has reported on Dan Price since 2015.
May 27, 2025, 4:07 p.m. ET
County prosecutors in California dropped a felony rape case Tuesday against Dan Price, a Seattle executive, court records show. He became a progressive social media influencer after raising the minimum pay at his company.
A grand jury in Riverside County, Calif., indicted Mr. Price in September on charges of rape of an unconscious victim.
The case involved a 2021 incident when Mr. Price went to Palm Springs, Calif., with a woman he was dating. The woman, Kacie Margis, said Mr. Price raped her at the Ace Hotel after she had said she did not want to have sex. She fled the hotel and reported the episode to the police the next day.
Ms. Margis went public with her story in 2022 as part of a New York Times investigation that found that Mr. Price had used his fame to enable a pattern of abuse in his personal life and hostile behavior at his company. Mr. Price denied the claims in The Times article, which was based on documents, police reports and interviews with more than 50 people.
Mr. Price, 41, maintained his innocence after the indictment was unsealed, though he did not enter a formal plea in court because his arraignment was delayed multiple times, the docket shows. He hired Vicki Podberesky, a criminal defense lawyer who had represented the Church of Scientology in matters related to rape charges against the actor Danny Masterson of “That ’70s Show.” Mr. Price also moved to have the grand jury testimony sealed.
“There was not a shred of credible evidence that Dan did anything wrong, and the dismissal of these charges was the only just result,” Ms. Podberesky said in a statement.
