I have a written agreement with a woman to be my wedding photographer. The negotiations and agreement were made over Facebook. The agreement...

Question

I have a written agreement with a woman to be my wedding photographer. The negotiations and agreement were made over Facebook. The agreement was for $800 she would do our entire wedding and engagement session all the pictures would be put on discs and we would have all rights to the photos. At the time of the engagement session we would pay a $300 deposit. On October 27, 2014 we had our engagement session. We paid the $300 via a personal check. She told us the pictures would be ready by Thanksgiving. To date we have not received our photos and she has cashed our check. It took me numerous calls, texts and Facebook messages, as well as contacting her family to even get her to respond to me. She gave me a sob story and said she would have her sister drop them off the next day. When I did not receive any photos, again. I contacted her. She informed me that she just needed to the weekend to finish them. Which meant she hadn't done any editing at all to our pictures since October. I said she had until Monday no later. She agreed. I have yet to hear from her. Would this meet theft? or theft by deception? I know i am not getting my money back all I want is the pictures, which I paid for. Any help is extremely appreciated. I would like to pursue this criminally not civilly if possible. Please note I know better than to make business agreements via Facebook, but this lady was a friend, so I thought she could be trusted. I learned my lesson, but I still would like what I paid for.

Answer

If you have made demands in writing and she has not produced anything or even offered to refund your money, it could be charged as theft by deception, but, it is very likely that the police/prosecutor will tell you that this is a civil matter and that you need to file a small claims complaint against her.