NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Many fans of the movie "The Blind Side" feel blind-sighted by the news this week that the family and the football player they brought into their home are now involved in a fierce legal fight.
Even in 2014, former Titans player Michael Oher told NewsChannel 5, the movie "The Blind Side" fictionalized many aspects of his life. At that point, he was still praising the movie.
"It inspired a lot of people, a lot of people went out and offered help to people after the story," Oher told NewsChannel 5's Jon Burton.
But now, in a new legal filing from Oher, he calls almost all of it a lie.
"It’s a pretty scathing complaint," said NewsChannel 5 Legal Analyst Nick Leonardo.
Oher claims the Tuohy family never attempted to officially adopt him when he was under 18 years old, but after that milestone birthday, they tricked him.
"He was presented with some documents when he was over 18 years of age that were supposed to somewhat finalize an adoption with his family. And the truth was, this was a conservatorship petition," Leonardo said.
A conservatorship would allow the family to sign contracts and make money off of Michael's life story without his consent.
"A lot of people would refer to it as power of attorney on steroids. I mean, you don’t get more power over an individual than when you have a conservatorship," he said.
It's a legal maneuver that can be a great tool for people who can't physically or financially make decisions for themselves, like the elderly or those with physical or developmental disabilities. But Leonardo said the court is supposed to be responsible for making sure the agreements aren't abused.
"You will constantly get documents when you’ve done a conservatorship, every year that says hey we need to know where the finances are and what’s the status? Is this going to continue indefinitely? How much longer do you think you need that?" he said. "They’re alleging these documents were never sent by the court. Now whether that’s true, I don’t know."
The Tuohy family tells The Daily Memphian they set up the conservatorship just to satisfy NCAA residency requirements.
"Michael was obviously living with us for a long time, and the NCAA didn’t like that,” Sean Tuohy said. “They said the only way Michael could go to Ole Miss was if he was actually part of the family. I sat Michael down and told him, ‘If you’re planning to go to Ole Miss — or even considering Ole Miss — we think you have to be part of the family. This would do that, legally.’ We contacted lawyers who had told us that we couldn’t adopt over the age of 18; the only thing we could do was to have a conservatorship. We were so concerned it was on the up-and-up that we made sure the biological mother came to court.”
Oher isn't only asking to end the conservatorship, he's suing the Tuohy family for damages.
"Every bit of money they may have made, The Tuohys, on Mr. Oher. They could lose that and then some," Leonardo said.
Which details are fact or fiction, may only be determined after a bruising battle between the two parties in court.
"It leads me to believe there’s certainly more to this story," said Leonardo.
NewsChannel 5 attempted to reach out to Oher's Nashville-based attorney, but so far we haven't heard back.
