Doctor facing federal weapons charge after explosives found during FBI investigations

TROY — A Miami County doctor arrested in connection to an FBI investigation near Troy and in Downtown Dayton appeared in court Thursday.

>> PHOTOS: FBI conducting ‘court-authorized’ investigations in Troy, downtown Dayton

News Center 7′s John Bedell was the only reporter in court on Thursday. As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, Steven Werling was in U.S. District Court for the first time since the FBI raided his home near Troy and a storage unit building in downtown Dayton.

>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Court Records: Explosives found during FBI investigation near Troy, in Dayton; doctor arrested

Not long after U.S. Marshals gave Werling a ride from the Miami County jail to the U.S. District Courthouse in downtown Dayton Thursday, News Center 7 talked to his defense lawyer.

During the court hearing, federal prosecutors said they’ve charged Werling with a felony of “possession of an unregistered firearm silencer.”

“The allegation as alleged in the criminal complaint on the federal side simply deals with having components for weapons that may need tax stamps on for purposes of possessing,” said Werling’s attorney, Jon Paul Rion.

Werling’s attorney wasn’t the only one to mention the federal criminal complaint.

The judge and prosecutors mentioned the same charging document during Werling’s brief court appearance.

After News Center 7′s John Bedell searched federal court records at the courthouse Thursday, nothing had been filed publicly, which likely means the documents have been sealed.

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News Center 7 previously reported Werling was charged with one count of “possession of dangerous ordinance” in Miami County Municipal Court. On Thursday, court officials said they were dismissing the case to move it to felony court in Miami County.

Court documents filed in the local case say Werling admitted in an interview with investigators to “manufacturing explosive devices at his residence,” and said during a search, the FBI found “six suspected explosive devices.”

“An explosive device is anything that can explode. We know he packs his own shells. And if some of the viewers don’t know what that means, it’s when you have a shotgun you can load your own shells with powder, gunpowder, pellets, and some device that would ignite that. It could be something to that nature, but we’re not talking in any destructive device realm in this case. It’s nothing like that at all ... (it’s) nothing that would be designed to explode to cause harm to people or property,” Rion said.

Rion said the explosive devices are, “nothing that would be designed to explode to cause harm to people or property.”

“It seems as if this is an individual who simply likes to tool his own weapons and really is a gun collector more than someone that would be of concern to society,” Rion said.

Werling will stay in jail until his next federal court date next week.

We will continue updating this story.