HP figure to plead guilty in U.S. case

A self-described “little guy” in the corporate spying scandal at Hewlett-Packard Co. will plead guilty today to federal conspiracy and identity theft charges – an admission that could spark more deal-making in a case that has riveted Silicon Valley.

Private investigator Bryan Wagner of Littleton, Colo., will face as many as five years in prison after his plea in U.S. District Court in San Jose, said his lawyer, Stephen Naratil.

A federal complaint filed Wednesday alleges that Wagner used a reporter’s Social Security number to pose as the reporter and obtain telephone records from the phone company. One of the charges carries a mandatory minimum sentence of two years.

Wagner was one of five people charged after revelations that HP hired private investigators to spy on journalists and board members during an investigation of leaks to the media. Among the tactics: Investigators posed as someone else to obtain confidential phone records.

The scandal forced the resignation of Chairwoman Patricia C. Dunn, who is among those facing criminal charges. Dunn ordered the investigation. She has pleaded not guilty and has insisted that she was unaware that investigators hired by the company might use illegal techniques.

HP, an iconic company long lauded for its ethical corporate culture, last month agreed to pay $14.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer.

Naratil said Wagner did not know for whom he was working and believed that his actions were legal. He cooperated with federal authorities, he said, because his employer told him that what he was doing was legal.

“By doing this he takes full responsibility for his actions,” Naratil said. “He hopes by cooperating with authorities he’ll rectify the situation.”

After California investigators showed up at Wagner’s home to talk to him last fall, the Denver Post reported that he told them he had destroyed his home computer with a hammer after news of the spying broke.

With Wagner’s plea, the federal case against him is likely to supersede the state’s.

It is unclear how Wagner’s plea will affect the four other defendants. Still facing state charges are Dunn; Kevin T. Hunsaker, the former HP ethics officer who oversaw the investigation; Ronald DeLia, the Massachusetts private investigator who carried it out; and Matthew DePante, who worked at his father’s Florida data-brokering company, which provided the confidential phone records. Wagner worked with DePante.

If convicted, the four each could face as many as 12 years in state prison and $65,000 in fines.

With Wagner “doing a deal, it puts tremendous pressure on the others,” said Paul Puri, a criminal defense attorney in San Francisco. “He’s their star witness at this point.”

Peter J. Henning, a professor at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit, said Wagner was “offering the good-soldier defense

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 michelle.quinn@latimes.com