Captain Involved In Collision Sentenced For Unlawful Use Of Mariner Credentials
In the wake of the sentencing of a Mississippi towboat captain for illegally using revoked merchant mariner documents to work as a captain, the Coast Guard is drawing attention to a document verification tool.
According to court documents, Jeffrey DeSalvo, a Picayune, Miss., resident, pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Louisiana to three counts of unlawful use of a merchant mariner’s license in violation of Title 18, USC Section 2197. He was sentenced in December by District Judge Nanette Brown to 24 months in prison and ordered to pay a $300 special assessment.
U.S. Attorney Peter Strasser praised the work of the U.S. Coast Guard in investigating the case.
In a March 7 posting to the Coast Guard Maritime Commons blog, its editor, Lt. Amy Midgett, laid out the history of the case. It began when the investigating officer for Coast Guard Sector New Orleans responded to the report of a collision on May 16, 2017. The investigation revealed that one of the endorsed masters assigned to one of the vessels involved had impersonated another mariner during phone calls with the sector command center and investigation officer.
The mariner had been working under a revoked merchant mariner credential (MMC) for years after having tested positive for drugs in 2014, and failed to complete a settlement agreement that required him to surrender or destroy his documents. He used his invalid credentials to obtain work for four different towing companies.
The Coast Guard has an online MMC verification tool. But in 2017, “certain technical issues” were causing some mariners with revoked credentials to appear as having valid documentation in search results. The verification issues have since been resolved, said Midgett.
“Although attempts by mariners to operate vessels using invalid MMCs are a rare occurrence, it does happen,” said Midgett. She said the system works when the coast Guard correctly logs the date on which a mariner’s credentials become invalid and when prospective employers verify a mariner’s status and report discrepancies to the Coast Guard.
