The Blind Side_ Tuohy Family Lawyer Explains Michael Oher's Conservatorship
The Blind Side_ Tuohy Family Lawyer Explains Michael Oher's Conservatorship
Transcript
00:00 Do you know when the relationship between Michael,
00:04 Sean, and Leanne really kind of started to change?
00:07 It's my understanding that it's been going on for 10 years.
00:12 But I wonder how are Sean and Leanne
00:15 handling all of this right now?
00:17 I mean, is it anger?
00:18 Is it sadness?
00:20 Like a death in the family.
00:21 It's a family being fragmented.
00:26 But their biggest concern is what's going on?
00:30 Why this?
00:31 Do you really believe that we would
00:33 cheat you out of your money?
00:35 We'll see what happens in court.
00:37 But we believe the proof will show that he was not
00:41 cheated out of anything.
00:42 He was not misled.
00:44 He felt like he was being told he was a part of this family
00:48 and being adopted into this family.
00:50 But in fact, he was signing a conservatorship,
00:53 which he did not understand.
00:55 The problem is he wrote a book in 2011.
00:58 In the book, he says it was a conservatorship.
01:02 He's admitting-- and I hate to use the word admitting--
01:05 he's stating that, yes, I knew it was a conservatorship.
01:09 And if you watch the movie, nobody says anything
01:12 about him being adopted.
01:14 Can I be honest?
01:14 I thought they adopted him this whole time.
01:17 When you adopt a child, you bring him into your home.
01:21 You treat him as your own.
01:24 The truth of the matter is they were treating
01:26 him as if he were adopted.
01:28 Most of us hear conservatorship, and we think Britney Spears.
01:32 We think someone who is under a guidance
01:36 to where someone else has control of your money,
01:38 someone else has control of your life,
01:40 and you don't really have a say in what happens.
01:43 Are we looking at it wrong, or is that valid?
01:47 This was the conservatorship of the person.
01:51 This was not a conservatorship of his finances.
01:56 She had a large sum of money.
01:58 It goes into a conservatorship.
02:00 The parents, her father, has control over this,
02:04 and she has no say so.
02:06 None of those things happened.
02:08 No money ever went into a conservatorship.
02:11 I wonder, he's a grown adult, like why he would even still
02:14 be under a conservatorship today.
02:16 Because nobody thought about it.
02:19 That's the simple answer.
02:20 It has not inhibited him in any way.
02:23 It will not be able to show that it cost him money
02:27 or he wasn't able to do something.
02:29 We got a statement from Marty Singer.
02:33 He says that Michael threatened the Tewis,
02:36 saying that he would plant negative stories about them
02:39 in the press unless they paid him $15 million.
02:42 Is that what he said?
02:43 You're saying that is correct.
02:45 And how did the Tewis respond to that?
02:47 They were not going to be the victims of a shakedown.
02:51 They were willing to sit down and talk to Michael at any time,
02:54 show him whatever they needed.
02:56 But you start getting these texts, and they're very ugly,
02:59 and the Tewis will be irrelevant when I get through with them,
03:04 things like that.
03:05 It was odd that it came out the same day he
03:08 started his book tour.
03:10 It seems like what is being laid out here
03:12 is the Tewis believe that at the end of the day,
03:15 this is about money.
03:16 Why is Michael then saying he didn't
03:19 see a dime from this film?
03:21 That's something Michael will have to answer,
03:23 and he will have to answer when he's presented with the checks.
03:27 Is there any thought that maybe he
03:29 should have gotten a bigger slice than 1/5 of the pot,
03:32 than an equal?
03:33 It was about a family taking in a person who
03:38 had suffered a hard life, taking in a person who deserved help,
03:43 that they wanted to help and give their love and nourishment
03:46 and every family member sacrificed in that.
03:50 I mean, they suffered the slings and arrows
03:54 of doing something right, and they stood up to it.
03:59 Is this something that you see that
04:01 could actually go to trial?
04:02 There's not going to be a settlement.
04:05 People need to understand and appreciate everyone's position
04:09 and then make their own decision on what's right.
04:14 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:17 [BLANK_AUDIO]