August 25, 2021 @ 10:50 p.m. | Updated August 30, 2021 @ 9:12 a.m. | Updated August 21, 2022

NEW RAPE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST GRAVITY PAYMENTS CEO DAN PRICE

police report says Victim WAS SLEEPING

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN UPDATED SINCE THE SUBJECT, KACIE MARGIS, HAS SINCE MADE HERSELF PUBLICLY KNOWN. ANYONE WITH INFORMATIOn ABOUT DAN PRICE can Contact Us in confidence.

LOS ANGELES – It started with this message: “Happy Valentine’s Day, beautiful.” It ended with a police report titled: “Rape of Drugged Victim; Felony.”

On April 13, 2015, Dan Price invited major media outlets to a carefully staged internal meeting where he announced a $70,000 minimum wage at Gravity Payments, a Seattle-based credit card processing company that he and his brother Lucas launched in 2004.

During the height of Occupy Wall Street marches and national wage debates, Price’s cleverly timed wage announcement soared around the globe at the speed of sound. Bernie Sanders praised him. Harvard and Brown studied him. Newsrooms around the globe featured him. Publishers and speaker agencies wooed him. And kitchen tables buzzed about him.

On April 15 of this year, almost exactly six years after his wage announcement, Price stood before a very different audience. He demanded to speak with the highest ranking manager at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs, California. That manager was Ryan Saunders.

According to Saunders’ account in a police report, it was 10:00 p.m. when Price said he needed to check out a day early. His date apparently fell asleep while they were engaged in intercourse. He said, she felt “uncomfortable.”

Saunders told the police that he too felt uncomfortable. “This is not the kind of conversation you have at the front desk,” he said. Price had unnecessarily volunteered information with dubious undertones.

Saunders said Price called him an hour later to secure a different room at the hotel. A minute later, Price changed his mind yet again. He asked Saunders to ship his luggage, despite the fact that Price did not provide an address.

Nonetheless, by the time housekeeping arrived at 11:00 a.m. the following day, Price’s luggage was already gone.

According to the police report, Saunders apparently did not contact security to do a wellness check on room 423 where Price and the alleged victim stayed. He said he called the room but somehow forgot when.

Saunders could not be reached for comment. An Ace staff member said he “has departed for a while from our company.”

Ace Head of PR Shelley Wright sent an email with her own questions but has not made herself available for comment following multiple attempts.

Ace security guard Alberto Garcia showed Palm Springs detectives video of Price conversing at the front desk with Saunders. However, he could not provide time stamps for the room keys on the date in question.

Garcia was able to provide entry times for the day before and the morning after. One of those times revealed a room entry at 10:13 a.m., an hour before housekeeping arrived.

Hundred Eighty Degrees asked whether it was procedure for security to intervene in an alleged incident like this, Perez said, “I am not at liberty to discuss security procedures, but I will have my supervisor contact you.

Ace security has not made itself available for further comment.

Lt. William Hutchinson of the Palm Springs Police Department did make himself available to discuss the matter. He said, “This is an active investigation.”

Hutchinson said Palm Springs detectives had not directly contacted Price in the more than four months since the report was filed. “We are a small department with limited resources.”

Hundred Eighty Degrees asked Hutchinson about another Palm Springs hotel rape case from two years prior.

Alejandro Adan, a Kimpton Rowan Hotal bartender with no prior felony convictions in the same county, allegedly raped a sleeping victim in a hotel room. Adan has been in jail for two years while he awaits trial.

Hutchinson said. “That was a very different case.”

Adan and Price are each accused of raping a sleeping victim in a hotel room. Adan was not dating his alleged victim. Price was, although briefly. Adan did not take flight from the room when accused. Price did. Both women said it was not consensual sex. Both men said it was.

Adan is in jail. Price is at home.

Although Price’s alleged victim did undergo a SART [Sexual Assault Response Team] examination within the same day of the apparent assault, Hutchinson initially said he still did not have results. “It’s unusual,” he said.

Malinda Wheeler is founder of the Orange County-based Forensic Nurse Specialists. Her team is responsible for administering the suspected abuse examination, gathering history from the allegedly abused, offering health care treatment and providing authorities with evidence that they would process through their own crime lab.

“We would not hold on to that evidence,” Wheeler said. “Police would most likely collect it within one day.”

Hutchinson said he did not know why “there was a communication gap.” He said he would have to ask the investigator why SART results were not available. “Maybe they [Wheeler’s team] did not notify us.”

Hutchinson later admitted that the department did, in fact, have the exam since May but “it sat on his Detective Jimenez’s desktop.” He said an officer had collected the results from Anaheim the day of or the day after the exam.

Wheeler said that, according to her log, she called Jimenez at least three times, commencing with the day the exam concluded on April 16. Jimenez did not return her calls. Another Palm Springs officer finally picked up the evidence 13 days later after which Jimenez sat on it.

Hutchinson said that his agency has failed to investigate as they should have and postulated whether they would have acted had Hundred Eighty Degrees not inquired about inexplicable delays.

Price’s alleged victim is Kacie Margis, a professional artist and model. Margis said these delays were extremely frustrating. [NOTE: She agreed to speak about the events exclusively with Hundred Eighty Degrees but has since gone public with her account. We entirely support her in that decision.]

Margis said Jimenez did not return her calls. Detective Ryan contacted her more than three months after the alleged rape. She said, “They made me feel like I was a burden.”

Jimenez did recently return Margis’s call after she had asked about the status of her rape examination. She said his tone made her feel extremely uneasy.

She said he initially refused to give her any information. She also said he was fixated on telling her not to work with media because “working with a journalist will harm the case.”

Doe told Jimenez she was working with a journalist because he refused to actively work on her case. She said this lack of apparent concern had caused her grave despair.

She said Jimenez begrudgingly revealed that he was working with the crime lab to finalize exam results for the district attorney.

Police departments like Palm Springs are required under the law to share case information with alleged victims of sexual crimes. The California Sexual Assault Victims’ DNA Bill of Rights was enacted in 2003 so that alleged victims like Doe are not subject to unfair practices.

Jimenez also said he did not know who Dan Price was, despite the fact that he is the lead investigator. Margis said she was shocked to hear him say that.

Hutchinson later said that Jimenez did know who Price was but attempted to assess Doe’s credibility. Hutchinson said he did not agree with this tactic.

Margis said she was not only afraid about why her case was buried but also afraid of what Price might do to her. Nonetheless, she said, “I want this monster to be held accountable for what he did to me.”

Margis said Price contacted her out of the blue in 2020 with the aforementioned Valentine’s Day text. He “liked” a series of her Instagram photos over time. She eventually looked at his social profile and reached out to him in February of this year.

Price immediately wanted to see her. He flew to California where he stayed at a nearby Ritz Hotel. They shared a couple of days together, connecting over politics, personal aspirations. However, Margis said that Price was especially fixated on having sex.

He invited himself to a Bahamas birthday getaway for one of Margis’s friends the day after he was scheduled to leave. Margis told him he could not go. He responded by asking her what she would do for sex without him.

Price texted when she returned. He said he was still in California, waiting for her.

They saw each other again on only two other occasions.

Margissaid she flew to Seattle in March. Price told Margis that he packed all three days with plans.

Their first evening together was enjoyable, she said. Yet, Price grew agitated the next day. She wanted to get to know him better. He remained focused on sex — they had previously engaged in consensual relations on a few occasions.

She said Price’s frustrations boiled over on the freeway while they were supposed to be soaking up the sites. She said he drove well over 100 mph in the electric blue $70,000 Tesla that his employees purchased for him a couple years prior. She pleaded with him to slow down. “I dug my nails into my seat it was so scary,” she said.

Price refused to listen.

They returned to Price’s house where he locked himself behind his home office doors for upwards of five hours. She said she remembered tending to his dog Samantha who was bleeding from her paw and in pain, which Price ignored.

Margis said that Price had an uncanny way of oscillating between bellicose behavior and saccharine sweet deeds. “I couldn’t understand what was happening. I was confused about whether I had done something wrong.”

As a gesture of contrition, that evening Price arranged a private dinner at a client’s restaurant which would otherwise have been closed.

The next morning, Price was cantankerous yet again. “He abruptly ushered me out at the airport without much to say,” she said.

That week and for weeks thereafter, however, she said he sent a series of effusively apologetic texts. He peppered a few of them with nude or semi-nude photos of himself. He asked for her to reciprocate. Margis said she refused.

She said she was conflicted. She thought about ending her connection to Price. His erratic behavior was taxing. However, they did have a fair amount in common. Her friends and family also admired this apparent saint of small business who put his money where his mouth was.

She thought Price might be suffering from the pressure of notoriety. Maybe she was misreading him, misdirecting him. She concluded that it might be worth one more chance.

They reunited on April 13 at the Ace Hotel. It was their third meeting. It was also the sixth anniversary of Price’s wage hike.

Margis said that, although Price was obsessing over whether press was retelling his story, the two of them enjoyed a good day and a half, including a hike through Joshua Tree National Park.

By the end of that second day together, however, Margis said Price had become inordinately possessed with media coverage. He began to command her to retrieve food for him and cater to other whims while he pored over his phone or sought interviews.

Margis said that Price volunteered yet another odd statement. “Your parents probably wouldn’t like me if they did more research.”

He mentioned his ex-wife’s allegations of abuse. He said that nobody believed her while everyone believed him. Margis said that, while Price was on his phone, she did her own research about how his ex-wife stood by accusations of barbaric domestic violence.

That night, they went to sleep without having sex. Later the next morning, Price demanded that Doe leave the room while he took a call. He said it was a therapy session with his mother, according to Margis. She said it was strange but she complied.

Margis left with a car key and phone wearing only a bikini and wrap, expecting to connect with Price in an hour or so. Price did not contact her all day, she said. She called her mother and friends who shared concerns.

It was nearly evening when Price found Margis by the pool. They quietly argued. He said she was being ungrateful. She retreated to the room. He later texted her, saying he was drinking margaritas poolside. She declined the invitation.

Margis debated whether to leave or wait until morning so she could further discuss her issues when Price was sober. She stayed.

She took a 10mg legal edible for persistent insomnia. He returned to the room where she had already begun to fall asleep. He initiated sexual advances. She declined. She said they would discuss matters in the morning.

A painful sensation later awakened Doe. Though extremely groggy, she felt Price repeatedly, aggressively penetrating her. She fell into a state of both shock and utter confusion from having been deep asleep.

She felt motionless, powerless.

Price soon removed himself, having ejaculated inside her. Doe said she desperately tried to gather her senses for a few minutes before determining the safest course of action. She eventually made her way to the bathroom.

Once Margis emerged, she said, “Did you just rape me?” Price initially denied the accusation, she said. She pressed him. He said he was just fondling her with the tip of his penis. She remained quaking in a far corner of the room, concerned about what Price would do.

Price took his phone and laptop, left the room and approached the front desk to offer his side of the story. Doe said she remained in the room in a state of shock for a couple of hours. She did her best to let the edible wear off after which she ran for her car, scared that Price would return for her.

Margis said that she felt shame for not paying attention to her own instincts and those of her mother and friends. She was also concerned that the police would not believe her because she took a sleep aid, despite its legality. She chose not to call anyone, but she did eventually text a dear friend when she arrived home at 2:00 a.m.

She said she had been raped.

Victim texts her dear friend after the alleged rape

Margis filed the police report 12 hours later and submitted to the SART exam a few hours after that. She said, “I did this, because I want this monster found out. I’m trying to pretend to be okay, but I’m really a shell of what I once was.”

Price’s former wife Kristie Colón expressed similar thoughts in a series of blog entries about how Price publicly channeled a kindly, compassionate persona while privately executing monstrous violence.

Colón recalled numerous instances in which Price allegedly punched her in the stomach, body-slammed her, tortured her with simulated drowning, threw her into walls, hurled objects at her and even sexually abused her.

She briefly alluded to the abuse at a TEDx Talk at the University of Kentucky.

She also wrote extensively about the experience in a long-form combination of journal entries, a handful of which she availed online.

“I have never (and still don't) have any expectation of justice (or revenge) nor do I need it,” she recently said to Hundred Eighty Degrees. Price’s allegedly abusive behavior, “doesn't negate anything about the truth of what I lived.”

While Price was married to Colón, Natalie McKinnon said he publicly assaulted her in a restaurant after a business event. “He was drunk and out of control,” she said. During the event, “He was very ‘handsy’ with me and the other girls.”

According to McKinnon, Price insisted on joining McKinnon’s group at a restaurant where he proceeded to make numerous inappropriate comments to her, grabbed her leg then stole her ID and walked out.

“When I went to retrieve it, he grabbed my arm so hard he bruised it, then he loudly and clearly told me the only way I would get it back was to go to his hotel room.” She said Price kept her ID for three days before a team of his handlers, possibly Gravity Payments employees, returned it.

A former Gravity employee, who would only speak on the condition of anonymity, said she was so disturbed by Price’s “bizarre” behavior that she parted ways with the company after a very short term. She said other employees, including those in the human resources department and upper management, told her “that’s just the way Dan is.”

A longtime employee who knew Price since high school agreed with that assessment. He said Price would “constantly drive people to nervous fits and tears – it’s the way Dan always acted, kind of like a sociopath.”

In 2016, an unnamed source provided Hundred Eighty Degrees with additional documentation that supported allegations of Price’s abuse. The following year, Hundred Eighty Degrees penned a piece that addressed how the documents further substantiated Colón’s accusations.

A few months later, Price wrote a LinkedIn article titled, “Confused about the #MeToo Movement? Maybe the Problem is Lack of Trust.”

Price wrote, “I have been both horrified and heartened to hear the stories of women who are finally coming forward to share their stories of sexual harassment in the workplace. Obviously I am horrified that so many women have had to experience this sort of treatment from their colleagues, but I am also heartened that they are bringing attention to this plague.”

Despite these musings, Price has yet to directly address Hundred Eighty Degrees questions about women coming forward to accuse him of rape and domestic violence. Hundred Eighty Degrees has attempted to contact him more than a dozen times by phone, text or email.

With the exception of McKinnon, every source requested anonymity for fear of Price’s legal reprisals. They said his fame and power have thus far likely precluded anyone else from publicly coming forward with accusations of abuse.

Price selfie photo on Instagram showing pubic hair

Seattle police previously arrested Price for assault at a bar. He has also been sued by a former boss, a former client, a former employee and his own brother Lucas, a former partner of Gravity Payments.

As of this writing, Palm Springs police have not yet coordinated with local Seattle authorities in an attempt to question Price face-to-face. Price does not have to answer questions unless faced with criminal charges.

August 25, 2021 @ 10:50 p.m. | Updated August 30, 2021 @ 9:12 a.m. | Updated August 21, 2022

NEW RAPE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST GRAVITY PAYMENTS CEO DAN PRICE

police report says Victim WAS SLEEPING

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN UPDATED SINCE THE SUBJECT, KACIE MARGIS, HAS SINCE MADE HERSELF PUBLICLY KNOWN. ANYONE WITH INFORMATIOn ABOUT DAN PRICE can Contact Us in confidence.

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