Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Hewlett-Packard's fallen chairwoman Patricia Dunn pleaded innocent on Wednesday to criminal charges stemming from her role in the US computer company's boardroom spying scandal.
Dunn entered "not guilty" pleas to four felony criminal counts during a hearing in Santa Clara County Superior court in the Silicon Valley city of San Jose, according to Tom Dresslar, spokesman for the California state attorney general.
Dunn was indicted in October on charges of identity theft, wrongful use of computer data, fraudulent wire communications and conspiracy to commit those crimes.
Dunn and HP's ethics attorney Kevin Hunsaker resigned from HP as the company was battered for unethical and allegedly illegal investigative techniques used to expose a loose-lipped board member leaking company secrets to news reporters.
Hunsaker and three private investigators face criminal charges along with Dunn.
The charges stemmed from an HP internal investigation in which telephone records of journalists, HP workers, and current or former board members were obtained by a trick of impersonation referred to as "pretexting."
Dunn has adamantly denied wrongdoing and contended that the kind of spying at the heart of the case against her was common in the corporate world.
The HP probe that erupted in scandal and resulted in criminal indictments was sanctioned by the Palo Alto, California, computer company's board, according to Dunn.
gc/ddl
US-IT-company-crime-HP
AFP 152123 GMT 11 06
COPYRIGHT 2006 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved.
