Hillary Hostage Suspect Claims Priest Abuse

Long-troubled man faced divorce, domestic violence charges
By Jane Yager,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 1, 2007 6:08 AM CST
Hillary Hostage Suspect Claims Priest Abuse
SWAT team members take Leeland Eisenberg of Rochester into custody after a nearly six hour hostage and standoff situation at the Hillary Clinton campaign office in Rochester, N.H. on Friday, Nov. 30, 2007. (AP Photo/Foster's Daily Democrat, Craig Osborne)   (Associated Press)

Leeland Eisenberg's problems began long before he seized five hostages yesterday in a New Hampshire campaign office of Hillary Clinton. In 2002, Eisenberg filed a lawsuit charging that a Catholic priest had sexually abused him when he was 21 years old, homeless, and emotionally vulnerable, ABC News reports. The accused priest has since been defrocked amid multiple abuse allegations.

Eisenberg said he was "living in abandoned cars" in a Massachusetts junk yard when he met the predator priest, after a traumatic childhood in which his mother's death had left him at the hands of his violent, alcoholic father. Eisenberg's more recent woes include pending domestic abuse charges from his wife, who filed for divorce four days ago. (More Leeland Eisenberg stories.)

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