Opinion ID: 203028
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Rodríguez-Durán's Duress Claim

Text: At oral argument on appeal, counsel for Rodríguez-Durán asserted for the first time that a continuance was necessary so that he could travel to Venezuela to investigate an alleged abduction of his client's daughter. Counsel implied that such an investigation would substantiate Rodríguez-Durán's claim that Tejeiro had threatened to retaliate against his family if he refused to cooperate in the drug trafficking scheme. At trial, Rodríguez-Durán testified that Tejeiro had told him that, in particular, his daughter and mother-in-law were being watched, and stated that Tejeiro had made contact with his family in Puerto Cabello. He further testified that he felt that serious injury or death may be placed upon her. [26] However, Rodríguez-Durán never sought a continuance based on the need to travel to Venezuela and did not raise, let alone explain, the need to do so in his brief on appeal. Even were the issue not waived, see United States v. Jiminez, 498 F.3d 82, 88 (1st Cir.2007) (noting the well-settled appellate rule that `issues adverted to in a perfunctory manner, unaccompanied by some effort at developed argumentation, are deemed waived') (quoting United States v. Zannino, 895 F.2d 1, 17 (1st Cir.1990)), we would have no factual basis for assessing its relevance to the district court's continuance ruling.