Man Who Took Hostages At Hillary Clinton Campaign Office Escapes From Custody
MANCHESTER, N.H. (CBS/AP) - Leeland Eisenberg, the man who took hostages at one of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign offices in 2007, is missing from a minimum security correctional facility in Manchester, state prison officials reported Sunday.
UPDATE: Eisenberg Captured
The N.H. Department of Corrections said Eisenberg is missing from the Calumet Transitional Housing Unit in Manchester. At about 3 p.m. Sunday, a regular population count was conducted and the 52-year-old was not in his room. He was placed on "walkway" status, according to a prepared statement from the state prison officials.
Eisenberg took hostages in Clinton's campaign office in Rochester, N.H. He entered the office with what appeared to be a bomb strapped to his chest.
Eisenberg is a white man, 5-foot-6, 220 pounds, with hazel eyes and brown hair. He was sentenced in Strafford County Superior Court to 3 1/2 to 7 years and began serving his sentence in the N.H. State Prison on May 6, 2010. Before Sunday's incident, he was eligible for parole on Aug. 6. His maximum release date is Feb. 6, 2017.
The N.H. Department of Corrections Investigations Bureau and the N.H. State Police are investigating. Eisenberg is not considered armed. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call their local law enforcement agency or the N.H. State Prison at 603-271-1801.
Eisenberg spent about two years behind bars for the November 2007 siege at Clinton's Rochester campaign office. No one was hurt in a five-hour standoff and the bomb turned out to be road flares.
At his arraignment in that case, public defender Randy Hawkes portrayed Eisenberg as a man at the end of his rope emotionally after being repeatedly turned down when he sought psychiatric help.
Eisenberg "heard voices and saw a movie in his head telling him he had to sacrifice himself" to shine light on the flaws in the health care system, Hawkes said.
Eisenberg was released on probation in November 2009. His first violation occurred soon after his release, when he failed to charge his monitoring bracelet. He was incarcerated in January 2010 after failing to take mandatory alcohol breath tests.
In February 2010, he cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet and fled, a day after being given a last chance at freedom by a judge who released him despite multiple probation violations. He was found in his Dover apartment the next day.
Eisenberg's long criminal record also includes two rape convictions.
He was sentenced to 10 years for rape in Worcester, Mass., in 1985 but escaped the next year and committed another rape, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to 11 to 20 years in the second rape case. He was released from prison in March 2005.
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