ROCHESTER, N.H. - Leeland Eisenberg, the unemployed Somersworth, N.H., man who allegedly held six people hostage at a Hillary Clinton campaign office last week, has a long rap sheet that includes two rape convictions in Massachusetts and escaping from a state prison, prosecutors said yesterday at his arraignment.
Eisenberg, 46, appeared in Rochester District Court yesterday via video and said nothing as Strafford County Attorney Janice Rundles outlined his criminal history, which began in Massachusetts in 1978 when he was fined for possession of a knife. Eisenberg's convictions include assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, burglary, larceny, stalking, and failing to register as a sex offender, Rundles said. She did not provide details on the crimes.
"What we have here . . . is a man who has a trail of victims in his past," Rundles said.
Judge Daniel Cappiello ordered Eisenberg held on $500,000 bail. He is scheduled to undergo a mental health evaluation today.
Eisenberg's lawyer, Randy Hawkes, said his client wanted to extend his "profound apologies" for the trauma he caused when he taped road flares to his chest and burst into Clinton's campaign office. Hawkes described it as an "act of a desperate man who was seeking help . . . for the plight of people everywhere who seek and cannot find answers to their psychological problems."
Rundles, though, said Eisenberg had never made his mental health an issue. She accused him of "trying to reduce his . . . actions to create sympathy for himself for a mental health problem."
Eisenberg walked into Clinton's storefront office in downtown Rochester on Friday, announced he had bomb, ordered everyone to lay on the floor in a back office, and demanded to speak to Clinton about mental healthcare. He also lifted his sweater to reveal what looked like a bomb and showed a cellphone, which he said was a detonator, prosecutors said yesterday.
The possibility of a bomb brought the city of about 30,000 to a standstill as federal law enforcement agents joined state and local police bomb squads and SWAT teams, who blocked off the downtown area and trained automatic weapons on the office. Officials put local schools on lockdown, evacuated about 300 people and 80 businesses, and shuttered other presidential campaign offices in the area.
Eisenberg's family members have said he could no longer afford his medication for bipolar disorder. After being turned away from a hospital because he did not have insurance, Eisenberg spent Thursday looking for help, calling the New Hampshire governor's office, his congressman, and the state Department of Health and Human Services, Hawkes said.
"I think it is ironic Mr. Eisenberg may now get the assistance that he had been seeking," Hawkes said. "And I think it is unfortunate that he must get this assistance through the criminal justice system."
Prosecutors charged Eisenberg with six felonies.
His family appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" yesterday and said he was despondent and had been drinking heavily because he could no longer afford his medication.
"It was an act of desperation to try to get help," said Ben Warren, his stepson.
Lisa Warren said her husband's excessive drinking pushed her to file for divorce last Tuesday after less than two years of marriage.
"When he was on his medication he was always making me laugh. He spoiled me," she said. "It was perfect in my eyes. But without the medication and [with] the use of the alcohol, he turned into a different person."
At the courthouse, Lisa Warren and her children Erin and Ben, both in their early 20s, sat in the front row. When Eisenberg appeared on the screen, Lisa quietly sobbed as lawyers explained how she had accused him of stalking her in July, received a restraining order against him, and then let him move back in their trailer. As the tension resumed, she filed for divorce.
They declined to speak to reporters after the arraignment.
Ben Warren had told the Globe previously that Eisenberg had been drinking heavily and was upset that a local hospital turned him away. After seeing a Clinton campaign advertisement, he thought Clinton could help him, Warren had said.
The last time he saw his stepfather, Eisenberg had gone out in search of road flares, Ben Warren said.
Before setting the bail, Cappiello said he took the charges against Eisenberg very seriously.
"I cannot ignore the extensive history of the defendant that goes back to 1978, that includes some very, very serious charges and . . .convictions, some very serious prison time," he said.
The judge scheduled a probable cause hearing on Dec. 10 in Rochester District Court.
David Abel of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
