From left: Sean Tuohy, Michael Oher, and Leigh Anne Tuohy.Photo:Matthew Sharpe/Getty
Matthew Sharpe/Getty
The story thatinspired the Oscar-winning filmThe Blind Sidetook another dramatic turn Monday, asSean and Leigh Anne TuohyaccusedMichael Oherof extorting them for millions of dollars and threatening them if they did not send him money.
In a legal response Monday, the Tuohys said Oher “should be denied” a motion for a temporary injunction in the case, that the family does not owe him more money and claimed that the now-retired NFL star has repeatedly threatened Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy with “menacing” text messages and emails that demanded millions.In an attached exhibit Monday, the Tuohys’ attorneys shared screenshots of some of the texts they say Oher used to allegedly extort the family.
The Tuohy family did not include their responses to Oher in the screenshots submitted in Monday’s filings.Oher did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment about the filing. A rep for the Tuohys pointed PEOPLE to the court documents when asked for comment.
“Needless to say, the menacing demands were shocking and hurtful to the Tuohys, who had always treated Mr. Oher with kindness and love,” the Tuohy family’s attorneys write in Monday’s filing.
Oher’s recent filings have disputed that sentiment, however.
Michael Oher.Scott Cunningham/Getty
Scott Cunningham/Getty
Oher claimed he only learned that he’d been placed into a conservatorship with the Tuohys when he was 18 years old earlier this year, a discovery that his attorneys described as crushing to the now father of two.
“Mike didn’t grow up with a stable family life,” his attorney J. Gerard Stranch IVtold ESPNin August. “When the Tuohy family told Mike they loved him and wanted to adopt him, it filled a void that had been with him his entire life. Discovering that he wasn’t actually adopted devastated Mike and wounded him deeply.”
The conservatorship had given the Tuohys permanent control of Oher’s financial and medical decisions — a “puzzling” legal action typically reserved for adults who cannot medically make decisions for themselves and require a guardian, legal experts previouslytold PEOPLE.Theconservatorship was terminatedin September, however Oher still demanded the family both file an accounting of his earnings fromThe Blind Sidefilm and pay him an alleged remaining sum of money he believes he’s still owed. He has also called a decision to split profits equally between himself, the Tuoyhs and their two children unfair.
When they finally did so last month, the Tuohys claimed they had transferred $138,311.01 to Oher in ten installments beginning in 2007. The family’s accounting claimed that its final payment of $8,480,10 was paid to Oher on April 17, 2023. The couple says in Monday’s filings that after Oher began refusing payments, they deposted his funds into a bank account in his son Michael Oher Jr’s name.
The movie went on to make more than $330 million at the box office, plus more as the film gained even more notoriety when it was nominated for Best Picture at the 82nd Academy Awards and Sandra Bullock won the Oscar Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Leigh Anne.
Oher later filed an objection to the Tuohys' accounting and claimed the documents they filed last month are “contradictory, confusing, fake in material ways, and wholly inadequate to account for the assets.”
The Tuohy Family and Michael Oher (center).Leigh Anne Tuohy/ Instagram
Leigh Anne Tuohy/ Instagram
He also called Oher’s allegations that the family siphoned money owed to him fromThe Blind Side“insulting.”
Since Oher’s initial filing in August, attorneys for the Tuohys have claimed the couple never meant to describe their relationship with Oher as his literal adoptive parents — despite doing so for years publicly, including in Leigh Anne’s published books.
“The use of the term ‘adopted’ was always meant in its colloquial sense to describe the family relationship the Tuohys felt with Mr. Oher,” the family’s attorneys wrote in Monday’s filing, adding that “it was never meant as a legal term.”
In a September filing, the Tuohys claimedthere was “never an intent to adopt"Oher into their family and alleged the conservatorship was arranged as a way to skirt NCAA recruiting rules so that Oher could attend the University of Mississippi, Sean Tuohy’s alma mater, to play college football without violating any eligibility rules.
Andrea Mandell
source: people.com
