HP’s Ex-Chairwoman entreats ‘Not Guilty'

Patricia Dunn, former Chairwoman of the board of Hewlett Packard Company, pleaded not guilty today in Santa Clara County Superior Court, in response to four felony charges related to the HP board-spying scandal.

At the short hearing in Sane Jose, Dunn was accompanied by her husband Bill Jahnke.

Patricia Dunn held the position of the chairwoman from February 2005 until September 2006, when she resigned her position after a criminal indictment.

During her five minutes appearance in the court, Dunn spoke only once, answering "Yes" when Superior Court Judge Jerome Nadler asked her whether she forwent her right to a preliminary hearing within ten days. Somnath Raj Chatterjee, a partner at the San Francisco law firm of Morrison & Foerster, represented her at the hearing.

If proved guilty, a fine of $10,000 per felony and three years in prison will be faced by Dunn.

The controversy that engulfed HP in the month of September pivoted around Dunn, who has been portrayed by some analysis’s as a ‘scapegoat’.

Dunn has been in the centre of controversy regarding her effort to investigate the board level leaks. It was published in a news story in September 2006 that Dunn had hired a team of independent electronic-security experts to investigate leaks, who later obtained the personal telephone records of HP board members and reporters who covered HP through a practice called pretexting.

It is illegal under California law to use deceit and trickery in order to obtain private records of individuals.

It was announced on September 12, 2006 that Mar Hudd would replace Dunn as the chairman in the 18 January, 2007 board meeting, but Dunn would continue as a HP board member after 18 January 2007, a position she has held since 1998.

However, Dunn resigned from both the positions on 22 September 2006 in a press conference, and Hurd replaced her as the Chairman immediately.

On October 4, 2006, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed criminal charges and arrest warrants against Kevin Hunsaker, Dunn and three outside investigators with four felony charges: fraudulent use of wire, radio or television transmissions; taking, copying, and using computer data without authorization; identity theft; and conspiracy.

After Martha Stewart, a prominent editor of homemaking magazines, host of homemaking television shows, and prominent commercial spokesperson, Dunn is the highest profile female executive to be questioned for undesirable practices in the business.

In 2002, Martha was accused of insider trading and other crimes, and in 2004, she was condemned of felony, sentenced to prison, fined, and barred from serving on a public company Board of Directors and from serving in certain executive capacities for five years.

Attorneys will return to Superior Court on Friday to discuss the scheduling of future hearings. Dunn and the other defendants are not required to appear at that meeting.