Thread: All Charges Dropped

I guess our privacy means nothing anymore????




Charges against ex-H-P chairwoman Patricia Dunn dismissed - MarketWatch



This is an update to correct that the judge dismissed all charges against Dunn. An earlier version was based on an erroneous statement issued by the Calif. Attorney General's office.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - A California judge on Wednesday dismissed all charges against former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairwoman Patricia Dunn stemming from the company's boardroom-spying scandal, ending an episode that tarnished the company's reputation and shed light on the shady investigative practice known as pretexting.
Superior Court Judge Ray Cunningham also said he would dismiss charges against three others if they performed community service and made any restitution approved by the court.
Those defendants -- who along with Dunn faced four felony counts for their roles in H-P's probe into boardroom media leaks - included former H-P ethics chief Kevin Hunsaker and private investigators Ronald DeLia and Matthew Depante.
The three pled "no contest" to one lesser charge Wednesday, but the judge declined to accept those pleas. All four defendants will avoid jail time.
The pleas, entered in a courtroom in Santa Clara, Calif., coincided with H-P's annual meeting of shareholders scheduled for the same city Wednesday afternoon. See full story.
The scandal came about last September, when it was revealed that H-P launched an investigation into boardroom leaks. Private investigators working for H-P then used the Social Security numbers of board members and employees, as well as of journalists who cover the company, to obtain phone records and other data, a practice known as pretexting.
Dunn resigned from the H-P board on Sept. 22, and Chief Executive Mark Hurd took over as the company's board chairman.
Dunn and the others faced charges of identity theft, conspiracy, fraud and illegal use of computer data related to measures that Palo Alto, Calif.-based H-P (HPQ : Hewlett-Packard Co.
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HPQ39.79, +0.24, +0.6%) took as part of an investigation into leaks of sensitive boardroom information.
The four defendants had faced the possibility of up to 12 years in prison if they had been convicted of the felony charges. In January, a fifth defendant, Bryan Wagner, pleaded guilty to federal charges related to his role in the case.
A statement earlier Wednesday from the California Attorney General's office had incorrectly stated that all four defendants would plead guilty to one misdemeanor count in exchange for having the felony charges dismissed.
"We had numerous discussions with the California Attorney General's office and appreciate very much that the administration of the new Attorney General decided to allow the judge to dismiss the case against Pattie Dunn," said James Brosnahan, Dunn's attorney, in a statement.
A spokesman for the office of California Attorney General Jerry Brown had said the AG had expected Dunn and the other defendants to plead guilty to the misdemeanor charge in Santa Clara, Calif. Superior Court.
However, charges against Dunn were dismissed, and the court refused to accept the "nolo contendere" pleas of Hunsaker, DeLia and Depante. The court said it would dismiss the cases against the three if they completed 96 hours of community service and paid any necessary restitution fees by Sept. 12.
The superior court had been expected to waive any penalties for Dunn, who is undergoing treatment for cancer