Last week, former NFL star Michael Oher filed a civil suit against the Tuohy family. The Tuohys told everyone for years that they adopted Michael, that they “saved” him, that they taught him the basics of football, that Oher was a dumb kid who needed extensive tutoring. None of that was true. In fact, the Tuohys lied to Oher, manipulated him into a conservatorship (rather than adopting him), scammed him out of his life rights and then profited massively from his story, with books, speaking tours and one Oscar-winning movie, The Blind Side. Oher is now petitioning the court to be released from the conservatorship. The Tuohys don’t have reasonable answers for any of Oher’s accusations, and they are now accusing Oher of attempted extortion. Well, Oher is thoroughly lawyered up, and now he and his lawyers want a full account of what money the Tuohys made off of him.
Michael Oher “has been kept in the dark” about his finances for nearly 20 years, his attorneys claim in a new legal filing this week. In the filing, Oher, 37, requests that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy file an initial accounting of his finances within two weeks, asking the court to set a deadline on the Memphis-area couple to clarify what money has been made off his name since The Blind Side’s 2009 release.
The retired NFL player, whose life inspired the Oscar-winning film, initially filed a petition in the Shelby County probate court on Aug. 14 asking to end his conservatorship with the Tuohys that began in 2004, when he was 18. Adding three new attorneys to his legal team this week, Oher is now asking for the Tuohys to make a full accounting of the money earned from the film. The 2004 conservatorship put the Tuohys in charge of Oher’s financial decisions, despite his having “no known physical or psychological disabilities” that would more often lead a legal adult to agree to a conservatorship.
Local attorneys in Tennessee have told PEOPLE the arrangement is “puzzling” given adult adoption is an option in the state and that Oher was not just sound of mind, but proved to be a solid student in college. (Conservatorships are often relied upon for people who are physically or mentally unable to take care of themselves.) Conservators are legally required to file an initial accounting of the individual’s finances when the legal arrangement begins. A conservator is then required to make annual filings with the court every year going forward for the person under their care.
“[The Tuohys] have failed to file the first accounting and have failed to timely file a single accounting for the last 19 years,” Oher’s attorneys wrote in a new filing Monday, demanding the Shelby County probate court have the Tuohys file an initial accounting of Oher’s finances within two weeks. Oher’s attorneys add the Shelby County court never granted the Tuohys an extension for filing the accounting, either, indicating there’s no reason the accountancy were never made over the years.
With no paper trail, Oher’s attorneys allege he’s been “forced to rely on the verbal assurances from his co-conservators” about his finances.
Since Oher’s request last week for an accounting of his finances and for him to be removed from the conservatorship, his attorneys claim the Tuohys “nevertheless have ignored his request and continue to use his name, likeness, and image,” though they did not specify where.
My question about the conservatorship was this: if it was designed as a work-around for NCAA booster rules, as the Tuohys claim, then why wasn’t the conservatorship removed once Oher graduated from Ole Miss? Oher’s lawyers are going in a different direction: if the Tuohys really believed Oher needed this conservatorship for 19 YEARS, why were they so lackadaisical in their paperwork? You can’t just con an 18-year-old kid into a conservatorship and then that’s the end of it – the court should be constantly monitoring the situation, and the Tuohys needed to file all kinds of annual/quarterly reports with the court. Oher’s lawyers are like: why wasn’t the court monitoring the Tuohys on this janky-ass conservatorship? Why are the financials such a mess?
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