MANCHESTER — An infamous drug-dealing case three decades ago at an elite Connecticut boarding school is coming to light again in a new movie.
“The Preppie Connection” resurrects a story that made international headlines in 1984, when a student at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford was busted at a New York airport with just under a pound of cocaine that he bought in Venezuela for his classmates.
The student, Derek Oatis, is now a 49-year-old lawyer. He faced a lengthy prison sentence after his arrest but was sentenced to just five years of probation and 5,000 hours of community service.
Oatis and more than a dozen other students were arrested and expelled after the bust.
He says watching the movie made him relive a difficult part of his life.
