Tristan Thompson is taking legal steps to take care of his younger brother.
Earlier this month, the NBA player filed to become the sole legal guardian and conservator for his 17-year-old brother, Amari.
Thompson has been the primary caregiver for his brother — who is is physically and mentally disabled, and is confined to a wheelchair due to Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy — since their mother, Andrea Brooks, died last January.
According to Thompson, he has been unable to locate his father, Trevor Thompson, who was ordered to pay child support when his mother assumed sole legal guardianship of Amari in 2014.
“Since then, Trevor Douglas Thompson has effectively abandoned the proposed ward; he failed to pay any child support despite the court order and has not been in contact with the proposed ward or Andrea Marie Brooks since July 2014,” the court documents state. “He has done nothing to support or raise the proposed ward since then and has relinquished all rights to have any say in the proposed ward’s care.”
“I have not had any contact with him since his separation from our late mother in 2014, and contact was minimal prior to that date,” Thompson wrote of his father in the docs. “My only contact with Trevor Thompson in the past nine years was a brief interaction when he appeared at my mother’s funeral. I have no knowledge of his current or recent whereabouts.”
Thompson said he even went so far as to hire legal experts to try and track down his father, “but they were unable to obtain any information about Trevor’s current location or other relevant details.”
As a result, Thompson stated in the docs, he is seeking to become his brother’s legal guardian in order to manage his finances and healthcare — made particularly complicated by the fact that Amari is a Canadian citizen, but has been living and receiving medical care in California. The brothers moved in with Thompson’s ex, Khloe Kardashian, following their mother’s death.
“If Amari is required to return to Canada there are no relatives there that have the ability or means to support Amari, and he cannot be provided the level of care and support he is receiving in the United States while in my custody,” Thompson’s petition states. “[I want] to ensure that Amari continues to have a happy and fulfilling life and to provide him with the best care possible.”
Kardashian has made a point to include Amari in family photos and celebrations, and her mom, Kris Jenner, teared up while talking about the teenager’s health struggles in an episode of their Hulu reality show, The Kardashians, last fall.
“Amari is teaching us a lot of life lessons,” Jenner said, brushing away tears.
