Updated 03/09/2010 06:08 AM
Cuomo sues wedding photographer
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has filed suit against Harold "Bud" Thorpe and Limelight Studios. Our Kat De Maria spoke with a Skaneateles couple who has been waiting for pictures from Thorpe for more than three years.
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
ONONDAGA COUNTY, N.Y. -- "It was very important to find the perfect wedding photographer. And Bud Thorpe was the perfect wedding photographer for us," said Diana Lyons.
Diana and husband Patrick Lyons say they found Thorpe and Limelight Studios online. They say he and his work promised the couple exactly what they wanted. And on their special day, Thorpe delivered.
"He was perfect. He never made us do anything we didn't want to do," Diana Lyons said.
"If we wanted something, we'd ask him and he'd come do it. But the rest of the time, he left us alone and let us enjoy our day," Patrick Lyons said.
After the Lyons' wedding day, though, the memories, and Thorpe, faded. He sent the couple their proof book late. And no other photos ever came.
"All of our kids were in the wedding. My grandfather, who's 98 now, attended the wedding. My father, I'm an only daughter. I would love to have those pictures," Diana Lyons said.
The Lyons' wedding was in December 2006. The couple didn't hear from Thorpe until October, nearly three years later.
"He said he had been ill and he was going to get everything taken care of," Patrick Lyons said.
After the Lyons spoke with Thorpe, they say they hoped the pictures would come. But they didn't. Now that the attorney general has gotten involved, the couple says they're trying to be hopeful again.
"I don't know if the attorney general will get anything from him. I don't know," Diana Lyons said.
"I don't know. I'd like to be hopeful. But you never know," Patrick Lyons said.
The Lyons say their want their photo album, the ability to make copies for friends and family and also something more.
"The point that really upsets me is that he's still in business and that he's doing this knowingly to other people," Patrick Lyons said.
The Lyons say they hope the attorney general can stop Thorpe, so he doesn't make any more promises he can't deliver.
The lawsuit seeks to bar Thorpe from business until all of his outstanding wedding contracts are fulfilled.
The attorney general is asking anyone who thinks they may have been defrauded by Thorpe to call the Syracuse office at (315) 448-4848.