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Family: Hostage Suspect Needed Help

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[December 03, 2007]  ROCHESTER, N.H. (AP) -- The man accused of taking five people hostage at a Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign office desperately wanted help with a drinking problem, but lacked insurance and money to pay for it, his family said Monday.

Leeland Eisenberg, 46, is accused of walking into the Clinton office on Friday afternoon with what appeared to be explosives strapped to his body, demanding to speak to Clinton about mental health care, authorities said.

"It was an act of desperation to try and get help," his stepson, Ben Warren, told ABC's "Good Morning America" Monday.

Eisenberg was scheduled to be arraigned Monday on charges of kidnapping, criminal threatening and fraudulent use of a bomb-like device. The five-hour crisis ended peacefully, after all the hostages were released and Eisenberg walked out to surrender.

His wife, Lisa Warren, told Foster's Sunday Citizen her husband had been binge-drinking for three weeks and desperately wanted help with his problem. She had filed for divorce on Tuesday, and the couple were due to for a domestic violence shortly after Eisenberg allegedly walked into the Clinton office on Friday.

"I still love him, I'm still here and I wish there was something I could have done and that I'm sorry that it ended up this way," Warren told ABC.

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The couple have been married for about 1 1/2 years.

"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."

Warren said previously she learned after they married that Eisenberg had a troubled past that included a lawsuit against the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston alleging a priest sexually abused him.

His past may have contributed to his problems with alcohol, she said.

"No one could have prevented this unless they knew exactly what was happening," Warren told the newspaper. "I hope that he gets the help he needs, and I'm glad that no one got hurt."

[Associated Press; By SOPHIA TAREEN]

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