foundation shakily arouses Alvin's office

to the Feds.

Specifically, the Secret Service wanted to prosecute him.

Why the Secret Service? Because Ed was associated with the 2600 hacker's
publication. And because he had photographed a Secret Service agent who
had come snooping around. The Secret Service agent was picking their nose.
The local TV station showed it.

To which the Secret Service agents responded:

"Don't **** with us. We're the biggest gang in town."

No other reason.

What eventually happened in court?

For possession of a 'red box' - a simpleton tone device that can fool
telco computers into making free calls even though the same computers
spot its usage:

In the words of Ed Cummings, "I was forced to make a deal with the devil."

The government had found data on a commercial diskette in his possession
which they say was related to cellular fraud in California. While Ed says
he has no idea what it is they're referring to, the odds of a jury being
able to understand how someone could have a diskette and not be held
accountable for every bit of data on i