A petition filed in Shelby County on Monday alleges that \
Former Briarcrest Christian, Ole Miss and NFL star Michael Oher filed a petition in Shelby County probate court Monday seeking to end the conservatorship of his name and financial dealings with the family that helped make his life story a blockbuster hit.
The petition asks a judge to grant an order to end the conservatorship that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy had signed in 2004. It also requests the court prevent the Tuohys from using his name, image and likeness, that the court sanction them, and force the family to pay Oher all money that should have been his, plus interest. That includes royalties from the 2009 Oscar-winning move, „The Blind Side“.
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In the filing, Oher’s attorney said the former NFL player was told to sign conservatorship papers that the family called “a necessary step in the adoption process.”
Oher, however, was not legally adopted by the family despite staying at their home and calling the Tuohys “mom” and “dad.”
According to the filing, Oher had been staying with a variety of people during his time at Briarcrest Christian School, which took over an hour to get to from where he was staying near Downtown Memphis. Prior to his senior year at Briarcrest, the petition said, the Tuohys asked Oher to live with them.
“Where other parents of Michael’s classmates saw Michael simply as a nice kid in need, Conservators Sean Tuohy and Leigh Ann Tuohy saw something else: a gullible young man whose athletic talent could be exploited for their own benefit,” the petition said.
At the time, Oher was in the custody of the State of Tennessee Department of Human Services, and the petition claims the Tuohy family did not attempt to assume custody of Oher when they asked him to move into their home in July 2004.
“Almost immediately after Michael moved in, the Tuohys presented him with what he understood to be legal papers that were a necessary step in the adoption process,” the petition said.
