Hewlett-Packard Ex-Chief Is Released Without Bail

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Former Hewlett-Packard Corp. Chairwoman Patricia Dunn is scheduled to appear for arraignment on November 17 for charges related to the company’s spying scandal.

Mrs. Dunn appeared Thursday before Santa Clara County, Calif., Superior Court Judge Alfonso Fernandez, who released her under her own recognizance and ordered her to be booked for her role in a boardroom leak investigation where phone records were allegedly obtained illegally.

Mrs. Dunn was one of five people charged Wednesday in the scandal, which forced her to resign as chairman from the computer maker’s board and led to the resignations of three additional H-P employees.

At Thursday’s short hearing, Mrs. Dunn agreed to return to court, but said little else. She hurried from the courtroom after the hearing adjourned.

Also charged in the case Wednesday were lead outside investigator Ronald DeLia of Security Outsourcing Solutions Inc. of Needham, Mass., and Bryan Wagner, another outside investigator from Littleton, Colo.They are expected to arrive in California next week.

Also facing charges is Kevin Hunsaker, a former senior lawyer at H-P, who on Thursday was booked on four felony charges and then released on his own recognizance. He is scheduled to appear in Santa Clara County Superior Court on December 6, said his attorney, Michael Pancer.

A final defendant, outside investigator Joe DePante of Action Research Group of Melbourne, Fla., has not been reached.The Attorney General’s Office is actively searching for him, said Ralph Sivilla, deputy attorney general.

H-P CEO Mark Hurd isn’t among those named in the complaint filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court — nor was H-P’s former General Counsel Ann Baskins, who had some oversight of the company’s investigation of media leaks.

H-P’s investigation, which took place earlier this year and in 2005, erupted into a national scandal last month after H-P disclosed that detectives it hired had obtained the private phone records of directors, employees and journalists in H-P’s effort to ferret out the source of media leaks.

Using a shady tactic known as “pretexting,” the detectives obtained the Social Security numbers of their targets and fooled telephone companies into divulging their detailed call logs.

At a news conference Wednesday, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said his investigation of the company, long revered for its ethics and professionalism, wasn’t yet complete and hinted more charges could be ahead.

“One of our state’s most venerable institutions lost its way as its board sought to find out who leaked confidential company information to the press” Mr. Lockyer said.

Arrest warrants were issued and a prosecution spokesman said Thursday that attorneys for all the defendants except Mr. DePante had been contacted and their clients agreed to voluntarily surrender.

Mrs. Dunn’s lawyer, James Brosnahan, said his client has fought for good corporate governance her entire career and will fight the charges “with everything she has.”

“These charges are being brought against the wrong person at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons,” he said in a statement.

Mr. Hunsaker’s lead lawyer, Michael Pancer, reiterated that his client had been assured of the legality of the tactics and was fired from H-P when he refused to resign.

“At no time did he — or would he — ever authorize or engage in any activity that he thought was illegal,” Mr. Pancer said in a statement.

The telephone rang unanswered Thursday morning at Matthew De-Pante’s office in Melbourne, Fla. No listed home number for him could be located. Mr. Wagner didn’t immediately return a call.

Mr. DeLia asserted his innocence in a statement he read to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

“I am innocent of these charges,” Mr. DeLia said. “I’ve been a professional private investigator for more than 30 years. I respect the law and I did not break the law in the H-P investigation.”


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