PROVIDENCE — A former employee at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport was charged Tuesday with transmitting a threat across interstate communications, according to Acting US Attorney Sara Miron Bloom.
Luis Sanchez Pardella, 38, of Newport, made numerous menacing, and at times threatening, telephone calls to at least eight of his former colleagues at the Center, according to a criminal complaint that was unsealed on Tuesday. The calls took place between July 2022 and February 2023, according to court documents.
In one instance, Pardella left a voicemail for one of his former colleagues, and said, “I will kill you and your wife when I see you on the street.”
The Naval Undersea Warfare Center is the US Navy’s full-spectrum research, development, testing, engineering and fleet support center for submarines, autonomous underwater systems, and defense weapons associated with undersea warfare.
Pardella also made multiple threatening telephone calls to the police department in Portsmouth, R.I., said said that an officer and his wife “will be going to jail,” that “the Portsmouth Police Department is corrupt,” and “write down [redacted name of officer’s wife] is dead… The wife of one of your cops is dead. Do you know who [redacted name] is? Write down she is dead.”
Pardella appeared Tuesday before a magistrate and was released with GPS monitoring and ordered to have no contact with any of the victims.
The matter was investigated by the FBI and Federal Air Marshal Service with assistance from police departments in Middletown, Portsmouth, Newport, and Providence.
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