Former HP chair Patricia Dunn surprised no-one yesterday when she pleaded not guilty to four felony charges relating to the spying scandal at her former employer.

Dunn, who faces charges covering fraud, identity theft and conspiracy, entered her plea at the Santa Clara County Superior Court. Four other execs also implicated in the scandal entered their not guilty pleas at earlier hearings.

According to reports, Dunn was accompanied to the hearing by her husband. She apparently chose not to speak to reporters gathered at the court house.

Dunn has not always been so reticent. A month ago she wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal in which she claimed she had been assured that the methods HP used to trace the source of press leaks were “legal, proper, and consistent with the HP way of performing investigations”. Just in case you forgot, HP’s investigators impersonated subjects to obtain their phone records, and considered placing spies in the offices of publishing companies.

Dunn also went on primetime US news show to stick it to her former (male) colleagues, and to insist she’d always thought it was perfectly normal to call up a phone company and ask for someone else’s phone records.

After initially fighting to keep the chairmanship of HP when the scandal first broke, Dunn finally resigned in September.®