Dec 1, 2007 4:40 pm US/Eastern
Suspect In Hostage Situation Had Troubled Past
ROCHESTER, N.H. (WBZ) ―
Leeland Eisenberg was in trouble before he allegedly walked into Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign office Friday afternoon.
Three days earlier, his wife had filed for divorce; in a few minutes he was due in court with her for a domestic violence hearing. Things weren't going well.
Then, the nicely dressed, middle-aged man allegedly peeled open his jacket to reveal what looked like dynamite strapped to his chest, and things got much worse.
Police say Eisenberg went there demanding to Clinton about helping him get mental health care and ended up taking five people -- including an infant -- hostage. Night would fall and harrowing hours would pass before the last hostage walked free and Eisenberg peacefully surrendered.
In the meantime, downtown shops, restaurants and homes were evacuated; children in a nearby school were put in lockdown, then rushed away on buses as staff members shouted they were going on a short field trip.
Authorities said a state police negotiator spoke to hostages inside, and then to Eisenberg, eventually winning his trust and convincing him to give up. Shortly after 6 p.m., the gray-haired suspect walked out of the storefront office, put a package on the pavement and was immediately surrounded by SWAT team officers with guns drawn. They put him on the ground and cuffed him.
The explosives were not dynamite, but lookalikes -- road flares duct-taped to Eisenburg's body and made to look even more realistic by a separate detonator, said Col. Frederick Booth, commander of the New Hampshire State Police.
Rochester police Chief David DuBois said Eisenberg was being held on state charges of kidnapping and reckless conduct, and that federal charges were being considered.
Eisenberg had a hostage call CNN three times and spoke to network staffers during the standoff, CNN reported after the ordeal was over and all the hostages were safe. Eisenberg said he wanted help getting psychiatric care, but had been turned away because he didn't have the money.
"I need to speak to Hillary Clinton," CNN quoted him as saying. "Something's got to change. Ordinary people need help" with their insurance.
The network described Eisenberg as "well-spoken, articulate and impassioned about his cause," but said he became increasingly agitated and laced his third phone call with profanities.
About two hours after the man let the woman and baby go, a woman escaped from the office.
The two other hostages made it out later, the last about half an hour before Eisenberg surrendered, police said.
Soon afterward, police maneuvered a robot to the road flares and triggered an explosion to destroy them.
Witness Lettie Tzizik told television station WMUR of Manchester that she spoke to the woman who was released first and that she was crying, holding the infant.
"She said, 'You need to call 911. A man has just walked into the Clinton office, opened his coat and showed us a bomb strapped to his chest with duct tape," Tzizik said.
Heavily armed SWAT team members, protecting themselves with shields, called to the man with bullhorns and attempted to hand a phone into the office.
Clinton Meets With Released Hostages
Clinton, in the Washington area during the day, traveled to New Hampshire Friday night to meet with the hostages, their families, and police.
"He was someone that was not known to my campaign headquarters until he walked in the door today," Clinton said at a late night news conference in Portsmouth. "It appears that he is someone who is in need of help and sought attention in absolutely the wrong way."
Clinton said she had been in constant touch with authorities through the day "to be available to do anything they asked of me."
She expressed relief for the peaceful ending and said the hostage taking would not affect her campaign schedule or security.
"It affected me not only because these were my staff members and volunteers, but as a mother it was just a horrible sense of just bewilderment, confusion, outrage, frustration, anger, I mean everything at the same time. But I was very grateful to have the calm and extremely professional support that I found in talking to the people here in New Hampshire," she said.
As a former first lady, Clinton has Secret Service protection. She canceled all her appearances Friday, as did her former-president husband, but she planned to campaign as scheduled on Saturday in Iowa.
Eisenberg No Stranger To Police
Eisenberg had been scheduled to appear in Strafford County court with his wife for a domestic violence hearing, according to Foster's Daily Democrat in Dover.
Divorce papers filed Tuesday indicated he had been arrested and charged with criminal mischief, domestic related, and violating a protective order. In the papers, Eisenberg's wife said he abused drugs and alcohol and subjected her to severe verbal abuse and threats.
Reached by telephone Friday night, a man who said he was Mrs. Eisenberg's son declined to comment.
Eisenberg also was arrested at least twice earlier this year, once for allegedly driving under the influence and once on two counts of stalking. The status of those cases was not immediately clear.
WBZ received a copy of a lawsuit filed by Leeland Eisenberg, formerly known as Ralph Woodward Jr., against the Boston Archdiocese. It claims Eisenberg was sexually abused in the early 80s by a parish priest in Westford -- Father Richard Buntel -- who was ultimately suspended by Cardinal Law in 2002.
At the time, Eisenberg says he was 21 years old, homeless and living in abandoned cars, according to the lawsuit.
He claims Father Buntel took him in and later sexually assaulted him. The lawsuit says the assault led Eisenberg to attempt suicide a week later. The Boston Archdiocese released a brief statement Friday night, saying they don't comment on any victim of clergy abuse and offered prayers for everyone involved in Friday's incident.
Eisenberg served time in prison in Massachusetts, records there show. Diane Wiffin, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department of Correction, said a Leeland E. Eisenberg with the same 1961 birth date as the suspect was released from the state prison in Concord, Mass., in March 2005 when he completed his sentence.
Under state law, she said she could not give other details, including Eisenberg's crime.
Eisenberg made local headlines in March when he held a news conference on the steps of Rochester City Hall to complain about a police policy of placing fliers in unlocked cars warning motorists to lock their doors.
"This is nothing more than a gimmick to get around the Constitution and go around in the middle of the night upon unsuspecting citizens in their own yard and search their vehicles," Eisenberg said.
Police, who said they were just trying to reduce theft from motor vehicles, changed the policy in response.
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