After last year's Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) board room spying scandal, I'll bet the company -- now the largest tech company in the world -- is ready to put the mess behind it. HP moved closer to the wish this past week, as a California judge dismissed misdemeanor fraud charges against HP's chief ethics officer and two private investigators who took part in boardroom leak spying activity.

Since all three men performed 96 hours of community service, the charges were dropped, bringing an end to the State of California's criminal case against the computer and printer maker. Earlier this year, former HP chairwoman Patty Dunn had all the charges against her dismissed by the same judge as well. Although nothing really came from California's criminal case, it did focus the public's attention on the HP boardroom scandal. My guess is that the prosecutors wanted that and only that. They succeeded.

So, at least from the State if California's point of view, the HP pretexting and spying scandal is no more.The charges are over with and so are the state's efforts. Was it worth it? Depends on who you ask, and although the monetary or other means of collecting some form of damages apparently was not the state's motive, it did bring the needed attention to the case. Lesson to be learned (as if we didn't know already): don't spy on the board members of your own company.

This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst 2006. Vote for Patricia Dunn's fall from grace or see other nominees in this category.

If you were to look back at this year's biggest management foibles and try to rate the largest, which would you choose? How about former Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) chair Patricia Dunn? I would count her as the company leader who fell from grace hardest this year. The former chairwoman of one of Silicon Valley's most respected companies was embroiled -- and still is -- in a corporate spying scandal, as the former chair tried to ferret out press leaks from inside her own board of directors. She subsequently quit her post and was grilled on Capitol Hill in front of the U.S. Congress -- and the situation is not resolved yet.

Dunn seemed to be on a roll when she received the Financial Woman's Association of San Francisco's "Financial Woman of the Year" award in 2001, and when she subsequently succeeded Carly Fiorina as CEO of HP. But resigning as chair of the board in September didn't stop her from being charged in October by the state of California on four felony charges, including conspiracy and identity theft. If the scandal and the indictments weren't enough, Dunn, a survivor of both breast and ovarian cancer, discovered that the latter cancer had returned. She continues to undergo treatment.

From one of the top positions in the tech industry to a beleaguered witness, Patty Dunn gets my vote as the hardest-hit, "fallen from grace" corporate executive of 2006.

This really comes as no surprise -- former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, who was pushed out of the company's top job a little over a year ago by chairwoman Patty Dunn, was park of the pack who tried to investigate press leaks at Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) as well. With former chairwoman Dunn (who is now indicted by the State of California for her part in HP's spying scandal) in the hot seat, one has to wonder if Carly is having her due. Well, not really -- her misplaced performance as a CEO was a mistake, although her finesse at sales and marketing (more emphasis on sales) shows a very strong track record in her career.

Carly's book, Tough Choices, is set to be released this coming Tuesday according to this Cnet article, although advance copies have been in the hands of scandal-happy reviewers already. One thing that seems interesting is the timing of the book. It coincides with the ongoing pretexting corporate spying scandal at HP right now, which resulted from leak investigations that initially started with Carly's authorization and under her watchful eye. Hmm.

This almost leaves current CEO Mark Hurd in the clear -- well, not quite. The current CEO has said that he was inattentive to some details about the ongoing corporate investigations, strange for such an operationally-minded CEO, and let some things get his approval without iron-clad due diligence on asking about the origins of the information. But, with the scandal now rocking the company having been started by a CEO predecessor -- insofar as just being approved, if anything -- Hurd will most likely stay perched atop the company where he has made significant changes and changed the once-declining fortunes of HP.

Hewlett-Packard's ongoing corporate spying scandal continues to reach new highs (and lows). Last week brought many former execs "taking the fifth" and former Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) Chairwoman Patty Dunn and current HP CEO Mark Hurd taking the stand on Capitol Hill in some down-to-earth but brazen performances.

Hurd's approach reflected his personality -- a no-nonsense businessman who is an operational geek to the hilt and who takes full responsibility for HP and all incoming data traffic that lands on his virtual desk. What about Patty Dunn, though -- she's already resigned from HP's board. Not so fast.

Dunn and others are set to be indicted on unknown charges by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. In information learned by the folks over at BusinessWeek, Lockyer is sending out neat little indictment packages to Dunn, former HP business conduct head Kevin Hunsacker and possibly others as well. Update: Dunn chose to surrender at a Silicon Valley courthouse on October 5, and will be arraigned November 17.

These new charges filed by Lockyer are being filed in obvious connection to the ongoing scandal at HP (been in a remote cabin in Montana for the past month?). HP hired investigators, who ended up lying to several parties in order to obtain the personal phone records of HP directors and staff -- including external journalists -- to assist in the tracking of leak sources to various pieces of the press, even plotting to plant spies at the WSJ.) Story at 11? Nope -- story all over the place.