Charges Dropped Against HP's Dunn

Patricia C. Dunn, the woman at the center of the scandal involving Hewlett-Packard's aggressive search for corporate leaks, had all state charges against her dropped yesterday by a California court.

Three others who were also accused of breaking laws to obtain such personal information as phone records will have their misdemeanor charges dropped if they complete 96 hours of community service, their attorneys said.

The rulings marked an abrupt and somewhat anticlimactic turn in a once-dramatic case that captivated the public and shed light on a shadowy world of spies for hire. In turning investigators against its own board members -- ostensibly to plug leaks to the media -- the venerated Silicon Valley company tainted its corporate image and incurred the wrath of government officials.

Dunn became HP's chairman in 2005 as the company's concerns about damaging disclosures of such sensitive corporate information as proposed acquisitions escalated. Under Carly Fiorina's reign as chairman and chief executive, and continuing under Dunn's direction as chairman, the company quietly hired investigators who lied about their identities to obtain phone records and conducted extensive background checks of reporters and company directors and their spouses and children. It also planned to put spies in newsrooms and to trick a reporter into revealing her source by planting a tracer in an e-mail sent by a fictitious HP tipster.

The investigation later prompted one board member -- George A. Keyworth II -- to say that he had spoken on one occasion to one of the reporters in 2006 but that he did not disclose any sensitive information.

In December, Bill Lockyer, then California's attorney general, announced a $14.5 million civil settlement with HP. Yesterday, the lingering misdemeanor charges were essentially settled by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Ray Cunningham in a San Jose courtroom with none of the defendants present.

Jerry Brown, the former governor and presidential candidate, who succeeded Lockyer in January, felt the decision to drop all charges against Dunn was appropriate in light of her health problems and her degree of participation in the spying, said Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for Brown. Dunn is battling a recurrence of advanced ovarian cancer.

Dunn, who stepped down as chairman in September, said in a statement: "I am pleased that this matter has been resolved fairly. . . . I have always had faith that the truth would win out and justice would be served."

Three other defendants -- Kevin Hunsaker, Ronald DeLia and Matthew Depante -- sought to plead no contest to a state misdemeanor count of fraudulent wire communications. Cunningham rejected the pleas and agreed to drop the charges in six months if the men perform the community service, said John L. Williams, DeLia's attorney.

Hunsaker was HP's ethics director during the search for leaks. DeLia and Depante were private investigators hired by the company.

Federal investigators at one point were looking into the HP spying matter. Williams said he was unaware of any federal probe involving his client, and a Justice Department spokesman did not return a call seeking comment.

One of Dunn's fiercest critics during the spying controversy -- Thomas Perkins, then a board member -- called the case's resolution "most appropriate," adding, "My thoughts and hopes continue to be with Pattie Dunn in her courageous battle against cancer."

In the wake of the HP scandal, President Bush signed a bill making it a federal crime to obtain private phone records by "making false or fraudulent statements" to a phone company employee, by "obtaining false or fraudulent documents to access accounts," or by unauthorized access to accounts through the Internet.