Felony charges dropped in HP 'pretexting' case
Lawyer News
[##_1L|1347134875.jpg|width="120" height="107" alt=""|_##]A California state judge on Wednesday dropped the felony charges against four defendants in the Hewlett-Packard (HP) pretexting scandal after the defendants pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of fraudulent wire communications and agreed to complete 96 hours of community service and pay restitution by September. The four defendants, including former HP CEO Patricia Dunn, could still be prosecuted by the federal government, but no federal charges have yet been brought.
Along with Dunn, former HP ethics director Kevin Hunsaker and private investigators Ronald DeLia, Joseph DePante and Bryan Wagner were charged with using false or fraudulent pretenses to obtain confidential information from a public utility, unauthorized access to computer data, identity theft, and conspiracy.
All of the charges stem from their roles in the illegal information gathering scandal that broke last month when HP admitted in an SEC filing that it had been investigating boardroom leaks using pretexting, a fraudulent investigative technique where the investigators impersonated board members, employees and reporters to uncover who was leaking confidential information from board meetings. HP announced Dunn's resignation from its board on September 22. Dunn and Hunsaker pleaded not guilty to the felony charges in November. A fifth defendant, private investigator Bryan Wagner, pleaded guilty to the charges and agreed to assist federal investigators with their case.
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Grounds for Divorce in Ohio - Sylkatis Law, LLC
A divorce in Ohio is filed when there is typically “fault” by one of the parties and party not at “fault” seeks to end the marriage. A court in Ohio may grant a divorce for the following reasons:
• Willful absence of the adverse party for one year
• Adultery
• Extreme cruelty
• Fraudulent contract
• Any gross neglect of duty
• Habitual drunkenness
• Imprisonment in a correctional institution at the time of filing the complaint
• Procurement of a divorce outside this state by the other party
Additionally, there are two “no-fault” basis for which a court may grant a divorce:
• When the parties have, without interruption for one year, lived separate and apart without cohabitation
• Incompatibility, unless denied by either party
However, whether or not the the court grants the divorce for “fault” or not, in Ohio the party not at “fault” will not get a bigger slice of the marital property.