January 26, 2022

WASHINGTON WOMAN CLAIMS GRAVITY CEO DAN PRICE ASSAULTED HER

SHELBY HAYNE SAid PRICE CHOKED HER AND DROVE DRUNK TO THREATEN HER

UPDATE 8/21/22: SHELBY HAYNE HAS PUBLICLY REVEALED HER IDENTITY. THEREFORE, WE HAVE REMOVED ALL ANONYMITY FROM THIS PIECE.

SEATTLE — Snohomish County professional artist Shelby Hayne said famed Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price grabbed her by the throat and would not let go after she refused his sexual advances.

Hayne has since said “the prosecutor filed charges” including assault with sexual motivation, assault and reckless driving.

Hundred Eighty Degrees contacted both Kings County and Snohomish County prosecutors’ offices. Representatives from each office said charging documents do not yet appear in either system.

Depending on the degree of the assault with sexual motivation in the state of Washington, penalties can range from registration as a sex offender to life in prison.

Hayne said Price initially contacted her in 2019 through Instagram. Other alleged victims have also claimed that Price consistently pursued them via Instagram messaging.

According to Hayne’s account, Price wanted to meet, but she “lost touch and never followed through.” She said Price continued to message her ever since. She said she finally decided to reach back out because she and Price apparently shared an interest in the same “liberal social justice causes.”

They eventually had dinner at Seattle’s Di Fiora restaurant on January 20. She said Price was “drinking quite a bit” and eventually became extremely intoxicated by the time the restaurant closed.

Price told her they should wait in his car for her Uber driver. Once inside his Tesla, she said he immediately grabbed and squeezed her throat while trying to kiss her. “As soon as I rejected his advances, he became a completely different person. He was visibly extremely upset. The charming man that I had met a few hours earlier had completely transformed. I sensed immediate danger.”

Price would not wait for her Uber driver. He sped off through town and eventually to the roof of the Northgate Mall Garage Park and Ride where he proceeded to “drift his car in donuts,” according to Hayne.

She said that, once Price stopped his car, he again wrapped “his hand around my throat, staring at me while I looked away, in silence, squeezing progressively harder, for several long minutes after I had rejected him. Finally, he let go of my throat and became even more angry.”

Price eventually released her, got into his back seat and laid down, because he said, “I am too drunk,” according to her account. She was eventually able to connect with a man whom she had been dating. He arrived at Northgate and drove her home.

Hayne and Hundred Eighty Degrees spoke by phone to discuss whether she should report the incident to local police. During a subsequent call, Hundred Eighty Degrees told her to consider filing a report based upon her statements. She said that she wanted to work with Hundred Eighty Degrees to disclose her experience.

During a recent follow-up, Hayne said she and other alleged victims had decided to contact The New York Times in an effort to more widely expose Price’s apparent abuse.

In 2015, The New York Times and NBC filmed Price in his corporate office as he announced that he would establish a $70,ooo minimum wage at his Seattle-based credit card processing company. The announcement quickly made international headlines and established Price as an millennial Robin Hood who continues to make appearances on myriad news programs, talk shows and speaking circuits.

The Times did not appear to vet Price’s lofty personal or professional claims before releasing coverage that launched him into worldwide notoriety.

Hundred Eighty Degrees, however, investigated those claims as well as a lead from an anonymous source who alleged that Price was abusive toward employees and his former wife Kristie Colón.

Hundred Eighty Degrees spoke with multiple parties at The Times, Bloomberg Businessweek and other publications about Price’s apparent fraud scheme and abusive behavior beyond Colón. All major media outlets chose not to pursue those findings.

From 2016 on, more women contacted Hundred Eighty Degrees, claiming that Price had harassed, assaulted or raped them. Each time, Hundred Eighty Degrees would contact the same media outlets, including The Times and Bloomberg, to disclose the allegations.

The Times and other major media either ignored Hundred Eighty Degrees emails and calls about Price’s alleged pattern of abuse or said they were not willing to attribute any findings to Hundred Eighty Degrees.

These refusals forced Hundred Eighty Degrees to pen its own pieces on behalf of the nearly dozen women whose allegations shared multiple similarities but were not receiving the media attention that Price continued to be afforded.

On January 27, however, The Times confirmed that it was working on a piece about Price’s purported abuse, including the victims that Hundred Eighty Degrees has interviewed and reported on. The Times said, “[We] understand you are an important part of this story and would welcome the chance to interview you about your work bringing matters about Dan [Price] to light.”

As of this writing, that interview has not taken place.

Should a police report or prosecutorial charging document become available, Hundred Eighty Degrees will publish any and all documents on this site.

January 26, 2022

WASHINGTON WOMAN CLAIMS GRAVITY CEO DAN PRICE ASSAULTED HER

SHELBY HAYNE SAid PRICE CHOKED HER AND DROVE DRUNK TO THREATEN HER

UPDATE 8/21/22: SHELBY HAYNE HAS PUBLICLY REVEALED HER IDENTITY. THEREFORE, WE HAVE REMOVED ALL ANONYMITY FROM THIS PIECE.

RELATED STORIES:

A partial list of the news outlets with whom I either spoke or exchanged emails as far back as six years ago, all of whom declined to pick up my reporting, except one nod from Geekwire.