OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush was involved in a ‘series of arrests’ over drugs and drunk driving

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush had some run-ins with the law in the past, once for a drug offence. Another time, he got into trouble for driving while intoxicated.

The Daily Princetonian, the university's student newspaper, said Stockton was involved in a "series of arrests" as a student. A 1981 article alleges that Stockton was arrested for having drugs in his car when he was a freshman, according to the Princetonian. He was driving at night when the police pulled him over. The borough police captain, Theodore Lewis, said that officers saw the drugs "in plain view on the front seat." Stockton was allegedly arrested on suspicion of possessing a "controlled and deadly substance," and later released. 

In another 1983 Princetonian article, it was alleged that Stockton was charged "with drunk driving and with driving around a flashing railroad gate." He is said to have driven his car into the Dinky, the train that connects the Princeton University campus with Princeton Junction Station.

Stockton was a descendant of the Declaration of Independence signers Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton, according to Princeton Alumni Weekly. His father, also named Stockton Rush, graduated from Princeton in 1953.

Stockton, along with British billionaire Hamish Harding, French diver Paul Henry Nargeolet, and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, after as a result of a catastrophic implosion of the Titan submersible. After the tragedy, several emails and messages between experts and Stockton went viral after his death, revealing that he dismissed repeated warnings that the submersible was not safe. It has also been reported that Stockton employed college-aged interns to design the electrical systems for the Titan submersible.

Passengers on board the Titan submersible were not referred to as “passengers,” but as “mission specialists” to avoid legal trouble if anyone died, former consultant to OceanGate Rob McCallum told The New Yorker. These customers reportedly paid $250,000 for a place on the Titan.

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