“The Tuohys refuted his [Oher’s] claim that they told him they intended to legally adopt him.”
In Michael’s first book, he wrote that it was explained to him that they could not legally adopt him because of his age.
So, giving a good faith interpretation, they may have told him that they were going to adopt him but found out that they couldn’t. So, they did the next best thing they could to adoption.
My point is that I don’t think there was any deception on the Tuohy’s part. They thought they could and they looked into it and did what they could for him. They still treated him as their son.