JANESVILLE – A Janesville man was criminally charged today with unlawfully possessing what authorities are calling a destructive device in a complaint filed today in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.
James Morgan, 30, was arrested in Janesville yesterday following the search of a travel trailer that reportedly had been parked on lots at businesses for months on Janesville’s northeast side.
According to the complaint, the Federal Bureau of Investigation received information indicating that Morgan was involved in the making of, and possession of, destructive devices.
Investigators searched Morgan’s travel trailer yesterday in Janesville pursuant to a federal search warrant, according to a news release.
The complaint alleges that six homemade destructive devices were found in a safe inside the trailer and that materials that could be used for making additional devices were also found, including two 1-pound containers of Pyrodex, a black powder substitute.
Morgan appeared in U.S. District Court in Madison, Wisconsin today. U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen L. Crocker ordered that Morgan be held in custody pending a detention hearing, which is scheduled for Friday, December 29.
If convicted, Morgan faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison. The charge against him is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Janesville Police Department, and the Whitewater Police Department.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Meredith Duchemin for the Western District of Wisconsin, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Scully for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, and Trial Attorney Justin Sher of the Justice Department’s National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting the case.
