from www.techeye.net – A US judge has decided that a letter that has been tied to Mark Hurd’s resignation from his job as chief of the maker of expensive printer ink HP can be made public.

Hurd and his legal team have been trying to keep the letter from Gloria Allred, a California lawyer whose client, Jodie Fisher accused Hurd of sexual harassment, top secret.

The letter prompted HP to investigate Hurd and forced him to leave the company. Hurd has since joined Hps rivals Oracle as president.

While HP found no evidence of sexual harassment, but accused Hurd of submitting inaccurate expense reports involving Fisher, who was working with HP.

According to ITPNet Delaware Chancery Judge Donald Parsons wrote 71 pages which said that much of the contents of the letter were already public and the letter’s contents were not protected. It will be coming to a newspaper near you in about 10 days.

Hurd’s lawyer, Amy Wintersheimer said she was disappointed with the ruling as she thought a letter, which was clearly marked ‘confidential,’ should remain that way.”

She said that her client intends to appeal, which may delay things a bit.

However the opinion revealed that Hurd used corporate funds to “wine and dine” Fisher and leaked private information about HP to her.

The Judge pointed out that none of the allegations were graphic or lurid, releasing the letter would simply would provide more details concerning a matter of established public knowledge.

Some portions of the letter will remain sealed. These are the bits that contains intimate details about Hurd’s family life.

The letter has become a hot potato in the lawsuit filed by a shareholder, Ernesto Espinoza, who is seeking HP’s records relating to Hurd’s resignation and severance package.