An attorney for the Tuohy family responded to allegations made by former NFL offensive lineman Michael Oher on Monday, in which he said the family never actually adopted him but instead convinced him to sign a conservatorship with them to make money off his name. The Tuohys’ attorney, Martin Singer, called the move “outlandish” and said it was a “shakedown effort” in a statement to ESPN on Tuesday.
Singer said Oher threatened to go public with the story unless the family paid him $15 million. The Tuohys famously took Oher into their home as a 17-year-old and supported him while in high school before he became a star on the football field. The story was told in the Oscar-winning 2009 movie The Blind Side. But now, Oher has filed a 14-page petition in a Shelby County, Tenn., court that said Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy coerced him to sign a document so they could become his conservators shortly after he turned 18 in 2004.
“In reality, the Tuohys opened their home to Mr. Oher, offered him structure, support and, most of all, unconditional love,” Singer’s statement read. “They have consistently treated him like a son and one of their three children. His response was to threaten them, including saying that he would plant a negative story about them in the press unless they paid him $15 million.”
Oher’s petition said that royalties from the movie about his life all went to the Tuohys and their two birth children. It says the movie netted $300 million and paid the Tuohys each $225,000, plus 2.5% of the film’s “defined net proceeds.” The petition added that the Tuohys have continued calling Oher, 37, their adopted son and have used that assertion to promote their foundation as well as Leigh Anne Tuohy’s work as an author and motivational speaker. Singer denied that and said the family has given Oher his fair share.
“They insisted that any money received be divided equally. And they have made good on that pledge,” the statement read. “The evidence—documented in profit participation checks and studio accounting statements—is clear: over the years, the Tuohys have given Mr. Oher an equal cut of every penny received from The Blind Side. Even recently, when Mr. Oher started to threaten them about what he would do unless they paid him an eight-figure windfall, and, as part of that shakedown effort refused to cash the small profit checks from the Tuohys, they still deposited Mr. Oher’s equal share into a trust account they set up for his son.”
Singer went on to say that Oher “has actually attempted to run this play several times before—but it seems that numerous other lawyers stopped representing him once they saw the evidence and learned the truth. Sadly, Mr. Oher has finally found a willing enabler and filed this ludicrous lawsuit as a cynical attempt to drum up attention in the middle of his latest book tour.”
A member of Oher’s legal team, Don Barrett, responded Tuesday night, saying, “We try cases in the courtroom based on the facts. We have confidence in our judicial system and in our client Michael Oher. We believe that justice will be served in the courtroom, and we hope to get there quickly.”
