By Margot Sanger-Katz
Concord Monitor
December 1, 2007
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071201/FRONTPAGE/712010382
Leeland Eisenberg, the 47-year-old Somersworth man accused of holding hostages at a Hillary Clinton campaign office for more than five hours last night, was well known to the local police and had a history of mental illness and criminal convictions, according to police statements, news reports and court documents.
Eisenberg faces a range of state charges and may be charged with federal crimes, according to police at the scene last night.
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| Leeland Eisenberg |
The police wouldn't describe Eisenberg's demands or his possible motive for taking hostages, but they did say he asked to speak with Clinton.
According to CNN, Eisenberg communicated with network staffers several times during the afternoon after a hostage called the network's Washington bureau early in the standoff. According to CNN, Eisenberg said he struggled with mental health problems and couldn't get any help.
David Dubois, the Rochester police chief, described Eisenberg as well known to his department. Their familiarity with him, and information from Rochester residents, helped them negotiate his surrender, DuBois said.
News reports from Foster's Daily Democrat suggest that Eisenberg had several interactions with police in recent years, including an arrest for stalking and two for driving while intoxicated earlier this year.
Eisenberg also complained, and made news, when he discovered a Rochester Police Department flier in his car in March. The police said they were distributing the fliers to warn motorists not to leave their cars unlocked, but Eisenberg told several news organizations that the practice was a violation of residents' constitutional rights.
"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 told Foster's from the steps of city hall.
Eisenberg was scheduled for court yesterday afternoon on a domestic violence complaint filed by his wife, Foster's reported.
Divorce papers filed this week said Eisenberg had been charged with criminal mischief and violating a protective order, according to the Associated Press. The document said that the divorce was the result of irreconcilable differences. It said Eisenberg abused alcohol and drugs, and verbally abused and threatened his wife.
Eisenberg's history of mental illness and violence appears to go back to his childhood.
According to a lawsuit Eisenberg filed in 2002, he had been abused by his "violent, alcoholic father," and lost his mother by the time he was 21. Around 1982 or 1983, he was living in abandoned cars in Ayer, Mass., when he was taken in by a local Catholic parish. The lawsuit accuses a priest there of molesting and raping Eisenberg. The Monitor was unable to determine the outcome of the lawsuit last night.
The suit also says that a week after he fled the church, Eisenberg "attempted to take his own life by jumping off a bridge in Ayer, Massachusetts. The Plaintiff was taken by ambulance to the hospital and was later sent to a psychiatric facility for observation and treatment."
In that suit, and a habeus corpus petition filed in 1995, Eisenberg indicates that he was formerly known as Ralph E. Woodward Jr.
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