Opinion ID: 203028
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Certification of Consent

Text: Defendants Morelis, De La Rosa and Rodríguez-Durán complain that they needed more time to obtain direct evidence from Bolivia to challenge the validity of the Coast Guard's consent to board the Sea Atlantic. However, defendants received copies of the official certification document on September 29. They concede that the certification is all that is required under the MDLEA to prove consent, see 46 U.S.C. app. § 1903(c)(1), and they fail to explain how more time would have enabled them to challenge the document or the consent it reflects. In his brief and at oral argument, Rodríguez-Durán also contended that the certification contained an incorrect location for the vessel and that more time was needed to retain a maritime expert to explore the implications of that mistake. Specifically, his counsel asserted at argument that he believed the vessel was located in Panamanian waters and that the Coast Guard thus lacked jurisdiction to board. Officer Cieblik admitted at trial that the location description on the certification erroneously indicated the vessel was boarded northeast of Aruba, rather than northwest, and attributed the discrepancy to a mistaken notation. To the extent that error reflected an actual jurisdictional problem  and we have no basis for thinking it does  we fail to see why defendants could not have addressed the point in the three weeks between receiving the certification and the start of trial. Certainly in the year between trial and the filing of appellate briefs, any real jurisdictional flaw could have been substantiated. Consequently, we conclude that the alleged lack of time to pursue this issue lends no support to defendants' claim that the court erroneously denied a continuance.