A day after Michael Oher, the previous NFL participant and topic of the 2009 film The Blind Aspect, alleged in a court docket submitting that the household who took him in as a younger participant had deceived him about being adopted and disadvantaged him of earnings from the Oscar-nominated movie, the household has hit again.

An extended rebuttal by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy’s high-powered leisure lawyer Marty Singer made public Tuesday mentioned Oher’s claims “that the Tuohys have ever sought to revenue off Mr. Oher just isn’t solely offensive, it’s transparently ridiculous.”

Singer additionally mentioned Oher just lately “began to threaten [the family] about what he would do until they paid him an eight-figure windfall, and, as a part of that shakedown effort refused to money the small revenue checks from the Tuohys, they nonetheless deposited Mr. Oher’s equal share right into a belief account they arrange for his son.”

“Unbeknownst to the general public, Mr. Oher has truly tried to run this play a number of instances earlier than – however it appears that evidently quite a few different attorneys stopped representing him as soon as they noticed the proof and discovered the reality,” Singer wrote. “Sadly, Mr. Oher has lastly discovered a prepared enabler and filed this ludicrous lawsuit as a cynical try to drum up consideration in the course of his newest ebook tour.” (Oher’s newest ebook, When Your Again’s Towards the Wall, written by Oher and Don Yeager, was revealed final week by Penguin Random Home and talked about his sophisticated relationship with Blind Aspect.)

Oher, an offensive lineman who performed eight NFL seasons after being a first-round decide of the Baltimore Ravens, joined the Tuohy household when he was 18 after rising up certainly one of 12 kids in unhealthy circumstances. Oher mentioned in his court docket submitting Monday that he was at all times informed he signed papers to be adopted, however that he just lately discovered the paperwork as an alternative created a conservatorship.

Consequently, he and his attorneys say, the conservatorship meant the household was in a position to make offers in his title. The submitting, in Shelby County, TN probate court docket, says the Tuoys used it to counterpoint their very own household, leaving Oher out of the earnings from Michael Lewis’ ebook about their story and the following 2009 film that got here from it, which grossed greater than $300 million on the world field workplace and gained Sandra Bullock the Finest Actress Oscar.

“When Michael Lewis, a buddy of Sean’s since childhood, was approached about turning his ebook on Mr. Oher and the Tuohys right into a film about their household, his brokers negotiated a deal the place they acquired a small advance from the manufacturing firm and a tiny share of internet earnings,” Singer mentioned. “They insisted that any cash acquired be divided equally. And so they have made good on that pledge.

“The proof – documented in revenue participation checks and studio accounting statements – is evident: through the years, the Tuohys have given Mr. Oher an equal minimize of each penny acquired from The Blind Aspect.

Singer additionally mentioned within the assertion, first reported by TMZ, that ‘the Tuohys have at all times been upfront about how a conservatorship (from which not one penny was acquired) was established to help with Mr. Oher’s wants, starting from getting him medical health insurance and acquiring a driver’s license to serving to with school admissions. Ought to Mr. Oher want to terminate the conservatorship, both now or at anytime sooner or later, the Tuohys won’t ever oppose it in any approach.”

Right here’s Singer’s full assertion:

“Anybody with a modicum of frequent sense can see that the outlandish claims made by Michael Oher concerning the Tuohy household are hurtful and absurd. The concept that the Tuohys have ever sought to revenue off Mr. Oher just isn’t solely offensive, it’s transparently ridiculous. Via exhausting work and luck, Sean and Leigh Anne have made a unprecedented sum of money within the restaurant enterprise. The notion {that a} couple price a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} would connive to withhold just a few thousand {dollars} in revenue participation funds from anybody – not to mention from somebody they beloved as a son – defies perception.

In actuality, the Tuohys opened their residence to Mr. Oher, supplied him construction, assist and, most of all, unconditional love. They’ve constantly handled him like a son and certainly one of their three kids. His response was to threaten them, together with saying that he would plant a detrimental story about them within the press until they paid him $15 million.

When Michael Lewis, a buddy of Sean’s since childhood, was approached about turning his ebook on Mr. Oher and the Tuohys right into a film about their household, his brokers negotiated a deal the place they acquired a small advance from the manufacturing firm and a tiny share of internet earnings. They insisted that any cash acquired be divided equally. And so they have made good on that pledge.

The proof – documented in revenue participation checks and studio accounting statements – is evident: through the years, the Tuohys have given Mr. Oher an equal minimize of each penny acquired from The Blind Aspect. Even just lately, when Mr. Oher began to threaten them about what he would do until they paid him an eight-figure windfall, and, as a part of that shakedown effort refused to money the small revenue checks from the Tuohys, they nonetheless deposited Mr. Oher’s equal share right into a belief account they arrange for his son.

Moreover, despite the false allegation within the lawsuit, the Tuohys have at all times been upfront about how a conservatorship (from which not one penny was acquired) was established to help with Mr. Oher’s wants, starting from getting him medical health insurance and acquiring a driver’s license to serving to with school admissions. Ought to Mr. Oher want to terminate the conservatorship, both now or at anytime sooner or later, the Tuohys won’t ever oppose it in any approach.

Unbeknownst to the general public, Mr. Oher has truly tried to run this play a number of instances earlier than – however it appears that evidently quite a few different attorneys stopped representing him as soon as they noticed the proof and discovered the reality. Sadly, Mr. Oher has lastly discovered a prepared enabler and filed this ludicrous lawsuit as a cynical try to drum up consideration in the course of his newest ebook tour.

The Tuohys will at all times care deeply for Mr. Oher. They’re heartbroken over these occasions. They desperately hope that he involves remorse his current choices, makes completely different decisions sooner or later and that they sometime may be reconciled with him. Within the meantime, nonetheless, they won’t hesitate to defend their good names, stand as much as this shakedown and defeat this offensive lawsuit.”

~ Martin Singer, lawyer for Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy