1/16/96

[1/16/96]

Cummings has been transferred into the "Phase One Inmate Unit" which is where inmates are held for the first 30 days. There are three phases in total, the third occurs after 60 days. Right now he's actually in the cell known as "the hole" which is supposed to be used for solitary punishment. Because of overcrowding, he's been put in there with two other inmates, one of whom is a convicted child molestor serving time for DWI. Cummings described the conditions as "really bad" - the prison is cold and filthy. The prison itself was built right after the Civil War. There are tons of roaches and grafitti in all the cells which dates back to the fifties - the last time it was painted. There are 1200 inmates.

We will continue to forward any email he receives at the bernies@2600.com address.

[1/22/96]

We just found out that Bernie S. will be sentenced this Friday morning at 9 am in Easton, PA for the crime of removing batteries from a tone dialer several years ago. This is defined as a victimless misdemeanor for which the judge in this small town (under considerable influence from the Secret Service) set bail at $250,000. He could get two years in prison at sentencing. Press attention could be very helpful in avoiding a sentence as irrational as the bail setting - right now the only influence these people are getting is from the Secret Service and they want to put Bernie S away for as long as they can.

If you know of anyone who will cover this story, please get ahold of them right away so they can plan on being there. If anyone is interested in going, let us know so we can hopefully fill some cars from NYC.

Sentencing is scheduled for Friday, January 26 at 9 am
Courtroom 5
Northampton County Government Center
7th and Washington Street
Easton, PA 18042-7492

(610) 559-3020 (district attorney)

case # 2173-1993
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania vs. Edward E. Cummings
Misdemeanor 2 - tampering with physical evidence

Please help spread the word.

[1/26/96]

The events of 1/26/96 were about as unbelievable as the events that have transpired throughout this case. The only positive development is that more people are slowly starting to realize what's happening.

Two and a half hours after the sentencing was to be held, the judge arrived in the courtroom. His demeanor seemed significantly more upbeat and open than his previous appearances. Perhaps this had to do with the fact that Ed's lawyer and members of the press were in attendance. The judge allowed everyone involved in the case to speak: Probation Officer Scott Hoak, Haverford Township Detective John K. Morris, Secret Service Agent Thomas L. Varney, Ed's attorney (Ken Trujillo), and Ed himself.

Throughout the hearing, the main issue was whether or not Cummings was a threat to the community. Varney was adament in his assessment of Cummings as a danger but when pressed by Trujillo could come up with nothing more substantive than the books found in Cummings' home. These books came from publishers like Loompanix and dealt with such things as making bombs and establishing false identities. The other damning evidence was a list of Secret Service frequencies (from an issue of Monitoring Times), a copy of a magazine article that listed Secret Service codenames for President Reagan (dated 1983), and a material that the Secret Service had suspected was C4 but which later turned out not to be. For some reason they feel compelled to mention this at each hearing as if C4 had actually been found when in fact the substance was something dentists use to mold dentures (the owner of the house was a dentist).

Trujillo successfully managed to get Varney to admit that no guns or explosives of any sort were found. No evidence was presented to indicate that Cummings was ever a threat of any sort to anybody. What's more, Cummings proved his responsibility by immediately getting a job after the Secret Service locked him up for most of last year and also by dutifully showing up for each hearing that was scheduled in Easton, even though the threat of more prison time loomed.

Cummings apologized to the court for his "odd curiosity" of the past, insisting that he merely collected books and information and never caused harm to anyone. His lawyer pleaded with the judge to allow Cummings to pick up the pieces of his life and not be subjected to any more inhumane treatment.

In the end, the judge was not interested in whether or not Cummings posed a threat. He saw a probation violation and therefore withdrew the probation. Sentencing was postponed to March 5th. But the judge showed some compassion. He lowered the $250,000 bail to $100,000.

Currently Cummings is imprisoned in the maximum wing of the prison where people with the highest bail are kept. He's with murderers and rapists. Conditions are appalling. One of the prisoners is on death row - his name is Joseph Henry and he bit off a woman's nipples and clitoris before strangling her with a slinky. These are the kinds of people the Secret Service has condemned Cummings to be with.

When Cummings was originally put on probation years ago, the probation officer told him he thought the whole thing was a big waste of time. The only thing he was accused of, after all, was taking batteries out of a tone dialer that a cop was questioning him about. And the really ironic part was that Cummings wasn't even the person who took the batteries out - it was one of his friends. But he was not about to turn a friend in for something so absurd. After all, this was a very minor thing - he paid a fine of nearly $3,000 and was put on probation and that was it.

When the Secret Service threw Cummings in prison for possession of a red box in early 1995, they knew he could be screwed again when he finally got out since being arrested is a probation violation. And Special Agent Thomas Varney spent a great deal of effort to see that this is exactly what happened. He made multiple trips to Easton and convinced the local authorities to lock Cummings up as if he were the most sadistic of killers.

On Friday, Cummings' probation officer did an aboutface and told the court that he thought Cummings represented a very great danger to the community. Outside the courtroom, he and the other local law enforcement people crowded around Varney like kids surrounding a rock star. He was their hero and maybe one day they would be just like him.

It would be good to say that the press showed up and the rest of the world finally got to see one of the greatest injustices perpetrated by the Secret Service. But the only headlines to come out of this charade said things like "Judge Hangs Up On Phone Hacker - Bail Revoked After He Continues To Commit Telecom Fraud". Not only has Cummings never been convicted of any kind of fraud - he's never even been accused of it. This is a case based entirely on perceptions and a sick vendetta by a government agency that has turned into a genuine threat against free thinking people everywhere.

When Cummings is sentenced on March 5th, he could be put into prison for years. This is what the Secret Service will attempt to ensure. They have to be stopped and they have to be held accountable for what they've already done. We need to be able to protect individual rights against this kind of abuse and so far we have all failed miserably. We have little more than a month to get it right.