A man convicted several years ago for taking hostages at a Hillary Clinton presidential campaign office is back in jail, accused of robbing a Manchester bank Tuesday and threatening to shoot a teller.
Leeland Eisenberg, 55, of Concord wrote in a note to the teller at the Citizen’s Bank at 875 Elm St. in Manchester that he was armed with a handgun, and demanded she give him cash in the white plastic bag he provided, according to court documents.
“No Alarms, No Dye Packs, I have a gun I will shoot you and others if you put a dye pack in … Fill the bag with cash now,” the note read. (Dye packs are used by banks to foil robberies as they turn the stolen cash a color.)
The teller told police she gave him $1,611.
However, when police arrested Eisenberg more than six hours later at the Valley Street cemetery, he had on him only about $118. Police said they found in Eisenberg’s right, front pocket 6.5 grams of crack cocaine, which was separated into 10 plastic baggies.
Eisenberg faces felony counts of robbery and possession of a controlled drug in Manchester. During his arraignment Wednesday morning, a judge ordered him held at the Valley Street jail for lack of $25,000 bail. According to a state court spokesperson, Eisenberg plans to represent himself during future court
Eisenberg’s interaction with the teller was captured on video surveillance footage, which was shared with Manchester police and other local law enforcement, according to an affidavit. Police posted a still frame from the video on their Twitter page Tuesday, asking if anyone had seen the robbery suspect, whom they had not yet identified.
A bank employee had reported seeing Eisenberg 30 minutes prior to the noon robbery smoking a cigarette outside. A construction worker who stated he knew Eisenberg from prison also identified him.
Eisenberg’s history in the state’s correctional system is complex, in part because of his numerous probation and parole violations, according to New Hampshire Department of Corrections spokesman Jeff Lyons. Eisenberg was last paroled in early June, at which time he took up residency in Concord.
He had most recently served two concurrent prison sentences of 3½ to seven years on charges of criminal threatening and false report to law enforcement.
Those charges stemmed from the November 2007 hostage situation at Clinton’s campaign office in downtown Rochester, where Eisenberg claimed to have a bomb and engaged in a five-hour-long standoff with police. What Eisenberg said was a bomb turned out to be road flares. No one was injured in the incident.
A Strafford County Superior Court judge had initially suspended those prison sentences. However, the court imposed them when Eisenberg violated his five-year probation by removing his electronic monitoring anklet.
Eisenberg was sentenced in the Rochester case in October 2008. He served time at the Strafford County jail on multiple counts of kidnapping before being released in November 2009 and placed on probation, which the court revoked because of the anklet violation.
He was paroled in December 2014, but returned to prison less than a year later because of further violations, Lyons said. Eisenberg was again paroled this June and would have remained on parole until February 2017 if not for his arrest Tuesday in Manchester.
Concord police Lt. Tim O’Malley said Eisenberg has no criminal record in the capital city. He said the Concord Police Department learned from the New Hampshire Department of Corrections this summer that Eisenberg had settled in the city. Eisenberg’s address is listed in court documents as Pleasant Street.
Eisenberg is next scheduled to appear Aug. 17 in 9th Circuit Court District Division in Manchester for a probable cause hearing.