A Navy chief charged last month with providing classified documents to a foreign contact is alleged to have passed the sensitive information while stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, between 2022 and 2023, according to his charging papers.
Chief Fire Controlman Bryce S. Pedicini faces seven counts of espionage, one count of attempted espionage, and multiple counts of communicating defense information and violating orders, according to documents signed Jan. 18 by the commander of the Naval Surface Force Pacific Fleet. He’s been in pre-trial custody since being detained in May.
The documents state that all seven alleged espionage incidents occurred “at or near Hampton Roads, Virginia” between November 2022 and February 2023.
In each instance, Pedicini is accused of delivering classified national defense information to a “citizen and employee of a foreign government” with “reason to believe that it would be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of a foreign nation.” The documents didn’t state what foreign nation the person receiving the information was from.
The attempted espionage charge is alleged to have occurred in May while Pedicini was in Yokosuka, Japan. In that case, Pedicini is accused of attempting to pass images from a classified computer system. He was taken into custody a few days later.
Among the other charges Pedicini faces are failing to report a foreign contact, failing to report the solicitation of classified information by an unauthorized person, processing classified information on a system not approved for it, and taking a personally owned electronic device into a secure room.
Pedicini is a native of Tennessee who enlisted in January 2008, according to information provided by a Navy spokesman. The spokesman didn’t provide an age for him, but online records indicate he’s 34.
Pedicini was assigned to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center in Norfolk from February 2022 to March 2023, and earned the rank of chief fire controlman in August 2022. He was assigned to the guided missile destroyer USS Higgins last April.
Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com