A judge push aside the criminal subject against former Hewlett - Packard Chairman Patricia Dunn on Wednesday .
The California Attorney General ’s place state earlier Wednesday that Dunn and three other defendants — Kevin Hunsaker , Ronald DeLia and Matthew DePante — would plead hangdog to misdemeanor tally in the council chamber spy casing .
But in a late affirmation , it admitted error . Dunn did not figure any plea to the charges , the Attorney General ’s office said . The three other defendants plead no competition to misdemeanor charges of deceitful wire communication . The court did not accept their plea but offered to give the axe the character against them if they completed 96 minute of community service and paid regaining to victim , the Attorney General ’s federal agency tell in the late statement .
Dunn ’s lawyer , James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster LLP , say Wednesday that the judge had done the right thing .
“ We have maintained from the beginning that Pattie Dunn was clean-handed and thus vigorously fought the bearing against her . Today , the judge dismissed the case . Ms. Dunn did not plead to anything , ” Brosnahan said in a prepared statement .
The events Wednesday ended a major chapter in a scandal that has drawn wide care to HP but has n’t significantly hurt the company ’s business . A Union investigation is ongoing , the U.S. Attorney ’s Office in San Francisco said Wednesday .
Another suspect , Bryan Wagner , has plead guilty to federal charges in the instance and as a solvent ca n’t be prosecuted by the Department of State . Those who had thrill dropped against them on Wednesday could still be charge with federal criminal offense , the California Attorney General ’s billet said .
HP declined to gloss on the case .
Nathan Barankin of the Attorney General ’s insistency office allege he issued the incorrect statement Wednesday aurora after being told by prosecuting attorney knead on the case that the defendants would inscribe pleas that day . Because the defendants had been negotiating a plea buy , he mistakenly put on they all would plead guilty , Barankin said .
“ This is strictly faculty computer error by me , ” Barankin said .
Hunsaker was an HP lawyer ; DeLia is an police detective with private investigation firm Security Outsourcing Solutions ; and DePante was a third - party consultant working with Action Research Group .
The four defendants were charged with fraudulent wire communications , wrongful use of computer data , indistinguishability theft and conspiracy . On the embodied level , HP concord in December to pay $ 14.5 million in ordering to ensconce possible civil charges in the case .
In January , the California attorney general offered to cast felony charges against the four defendants if they pleaded guilty to one violation each .
As a result , former chairman Dunn has already stepped down from her job , as did Hunsaker .
Despite the direction shakeup triggered by Dunn ’s surrender , HP has endure the spy saga easily in business term .
In the third quarter of 2006 , HP passed Dell in market portion to become the world ’s largest PC vendor , according to figures from Gartner . HP reduplicate the feat in the quaternary quarter , building sales momentum over its struggling rival Dell .
And on Feb. 20 , HP reported final income for its first quarter of $ 1.5 billion , shell Wall Street expectations as well as its own profits for the same period last class . Much of the increment in profits come from increased sales in HP ’s personal scheme group , which sells background and laptop electronic computer for consumer , and from its tomography and printing division , according to Chairman and CEO Mark Hurd .
HP customer have also shrug off the company ’s legal problem . Board members of Encompass , a lead HP substance abuser group , declined to annotate on the jurist ’s conclusion Wednesday , according to a spokesman .
One bill of the foresighted - term effect of the developments in the spy case may come at Encompass ’ one-year HP Tech Forum patronage show , beginning June 18 in Las Vegas . But so far , the mathematical group design to bound its Roger Sessions to discussion of “ the technology of HP and related IT topics . ”
