PROVIDENCE — A former employee of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Middletown appeared in U.S. District Court in Providence on Tuesday, April 15, charged with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Sara Miron Bloom.

It is alleged that between July 2022 and February 2023, 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 Naval Undersea Warfare Center. 

In one such instance, it is alleged that Pardella left a voicemail stating, “I will kill you and your wife when I see you on the street.”

It is further alleged that between December 2022 and February 2023, Pardella made multiple threatening telephone calls to the Portsmouth Police Department, stating that an officer and his wife “will be going to jail,” that “the Portsmouth Police Department is corrupt,” and “write down (name of officer’s wife) is dead write down. The wife of one of your cops is dead. Do you know who (name redacted) is? Write down she is dead.”

Pardella appeared before a U.S. Magistrate Judge Tuesday and was released with GPS monitoring and ordered to have no contact with any of the identified victims.

A federal criminal complaint is merely an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul F. Daly, Jr., with the assistance of Assistant U.S. Attorney Denise M. Barton.

The matter was investigated by the FBI, with the assistance of the Portsmouth Police Department, Middletown Police Department, Newport Police Department, Providence Police Department, and the Federal Air Marshal Service.