After being accused of providing defined files to a foreign touch while stationed in Norfolk and Japan, a Navy commander was found guilty of attempted spy last week in a San Diego military court.
According to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Chief Fire Controlman Bryce S. Pedicini was found guilty of attempting to eavesdrop on, infringe upon, and otherwise violate a constitutional attempt. Following a seven-day test in a public court military, the ruling was handed down on Friday.
Pedicini is facing up to life in jail and a shameful release, according to court papers. On May 7, he is scheduled to receive his sentence.
In a press release, Omar Lopez, chairman of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, said,” This guilty verdict holds Mr. Pedicini accountable for his treachery of his land and fellow company people.”
Pedicini was  , charged in February , with one count of attempted spy stemming from May 8- 17, 2023, while he was stationed at or near Yokosuka, Japan, according to the command plate. In April 2023, Pedicini was assigned to the guided weapon battleship USS Higgins in Japan.
According to a charge strip signed by the captain of the Naval Surface Force Pacific Fleet on January 18, he had also been charged with seven counts of spy that allegedly occurred at or near Hampton Roads between November 2022 and February 2023. Pedicini was assigned to Norfolk’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center at the time.
According to the charge sheet, Pedicini was even accused of failing to report foreign links to his chain of command, failing to report soliciting classified information, bringing a specific machine into a safe place, and transporting classified data.
In a March 15 motion, the prosecution claimed that Pedicini was contacted by a claiming to be a Japanese organization’s defense researcher on October 24, 2022. They claimed that the person gave Pedicini money in exchange for details about the United States ‘ military strategies and capabilities in a region that was removed from the shared court document.
According to NCIS, foreign adversaries use this type of solicitation to obtain classified and unclassified national defense information.
During his time stationed in Norfolk, Pedicini was accused of mailing the accused between November 2022 and February 2023 seven documents, according to the prosecution. They claimed that Pedicini made an attempt to send photos he accessed through a classified defense information systems network while he was in Japan in May 2023.
In a document filed with the court martial on April 9, the defendants claimed Pedicini had received money from the defendant and had it transferred to his credit union account using PayPal. The amount of money Pedicini received is not disclosed in court documents provided by the Office of the Judge Advocate General.
Pedicini’s defense counsel filed a motion March 11 to suppress statements Pedicini made to NCIS investigators on May 19, 2023, when he was detained. Pedicini’s rights were violated, according to the defense counsel’s motion, because the investigators did n’t inform him of what he was accused of at the start of the interrogation. According to military law, the defense lawyer claimed that the failure to inform accused service members of the nature of the accusation renders a statement inadmissible against the accused.
When questioned about whether he knew the reason for his being interrogated, Pedicini told the defense that he had photos of the front page of two classified documents on his phone and that he thought it was about” classified material disclosure.” Pedicini’s attorney claimed that investigators did n’t inform him that he had been suspected of espionage until more than an hour into the interrogation.
Soon after, Pedicini told investigators that he believed the person he was speaking with might be from a Japanese research organization and that he was sending information he discovered on Google, according to the court document.
But around 10 minutes after investigators told Pedicini about their espionage suspicions, the investigators ‘ recording device failed, according to the defense’s motion.
Afterward, an investigator provided a written summary of the unrecorded segment of the interrogation. Pedicini claimed that his contact had been requesting classified information for the past year and that he had been instructed not to use the base Wi-Fi to send documents or pictures, according to an excerpt from the summary that was included in the defense counsel’s motion.
The judge’s decision regarding the defense counsel’s request to suppress statements made by Pedicini during the May 19 interrogation is not included in court documents made available to The Virginian-Pilot. On Wednesday, the defense attorney received an email from the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps.
According to information a Navy spokesman provided, Pedicini was a native of Tennessee and enlisted in January 2008. Although the spokesman did n’t specify an age, online records indicate he was 34.
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