Just a day after reports surfaced that former NFL player and subject of the 2009 movie The Blind Side Michael Oher was suing the family that took him in, the family has responded.
The Tuohy’s attorney claims that Oher has been trying to “shake down” the family
In a lengthy rebuttal from Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy’s high-powered attorney Marty Singer (via Deadline), he claims that Oher’s allegations of the Tuohy family wanting to profit off of him are “offensive” and “transparently ridiculous.”
Singer’s statement also mentioned that Oher had recently “started to threaten [the family] 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.”
“Unbeknownst to the public, Mr. 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,” Singer’s statement continued. “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.”
Oher’s latest book, When Your Back’s Against the Wall, was recently published last week, and featured stories of his complicated history with the 2009 film.
In Oher’s lawsuit, he claims that the Tuohy’s never actually adopted Oher but instead signed him into a conservatorship and have been profiting off of him due to the film’s popularity for years. The lawsuit also alleges that Oher has not made any money off of the success of The Blind Side, which made over $300 million at the box office.
Oher’s petition asks the court to end the Tuohys’ conservatorship, issue an injunction that bars the family from using his name and likeness, and also seeks to give Oher a full accounting of the money the family made while using his name. Oher is also seeking to be paid back the fair share of profits from the film, as well as other unspecified damages.
