Riverside County prosecutors have dropped a rape cost towards Dan Value, the previous chief government of Gravity Funds, who was accused of sexually assaulting a girlfriend on the Ace Lodge in Palm Springs in 2021.
The cost towards the 41-year-old founding father of the Seattle-based tech firm was dismissed on Tuesday as a result of an absence of prosecutable proof, in response to the Riverside County district legal professional’s workplace.
Value gained renown in 2015 when he took an virtually 93% pay reduce to lift his workers’ beginning wage to $70,000. However his popularity as a darling of the progressive motion was sullied in 2022 when the New York Instances printed an expose detailing an alleged historical past of abusing ladies — accusations he has denied.
The article, based mostly on interviews with greater than a dozen ladies, painted the portrait of a predatory man who used his fame to allow a sample of abuse in his private life, together with a home violence accusation by his ex-wife and an alleged assault of a girl in Seattle.
It additionally shared the story of his former girlfriend Kacie Margis, who accused him of raping her in Palm Springs in April 2021 after she had informed him she didn’t wish to have intercourse and had taken a hashish edible to counter insomnia. The next morning, she fled her resort room and reported the alleged rape to police.
Value stepped down from his government function at bank card payment-processing firm Gravity Funds in August 2022, saying in a assertion on X that he wanted “to focus full time on combating false accusations” made towards him.
“I’m not going wherever,” he vowed.
Final Could, he introduced that he had returned to Gravity Funds full time as an adviser to the CEO.
In September, a Riverside County grand jury indicted him on one rely of rape of an unconscious sufferer, in response to court docket paperwork. He voluntarily appeared in court docket and posted $55,000 in bail.
“I’m going to show that the allegation is fake in court docket,” he mentioned in an October assertion on X. “As I’ve mentioned repeatedly … I’ve by no means bodily or sexually assaulted anybody.”
Value, in the end, by no means entered a plea within the Palm Springs case as his arraignment was postponed a number of occasions.
The Riverside County district legal professional’s workplace mentioned in an announcement shared with The Instances that it “totally reviewed all out there proof and, after cautious consideration, has decided that we’re unable to pursue fees towards Mr. Value past an affordable doubt.”
Value was represented by Vicki Podberesky, a famous felony legal professional who represented the Church of Scientology in a rape case involving “That ’70s present” actor Danny Masterson and represented former USC Dean Marilyn Flynn throughout a federal corruption investigation.
Value additionally has confronted misdemeanor assault fees within the metropolis of Seattle, after a girl he went to dinner with accused him of forcing undesirable kisses and grabbing her by the neck. These fees had been dropped towards him in 2023, as a result of “proof” issues, in response to the Seattle Instances.
In a latest court docket assertion, Margis mentioned {that a} grand jury believed her rape allegation after listening to testimony from resort employees, regulation enforcement, one other witness and herself, the information outlet reported.
“However now I sit right here watching that very same man stroll free once more,” she wrote. “I hope this court docket acknowledges the energy it takes to outlive one thing like this — to talk out, to relive it again and again and nonetheless stand tall.”
