6 April 10th-April 16th, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Bail Bond School board president bailed out Xanadu Coffee owner after child sex sting. BY MORGAN FISCHER O n March 26, Xanadu Coffee owner Randall Denton was sentenced to a year in prison for attempting to have sex with a girl he’d been led to believe was 14. In the days since that bomb dropped, everything and everyone around him has felt the shockwaves. Xanadu Coffee closed. Employees said they’d been unaware of the nature of Denton’s crime. A few days later, it reopened, though its prospects for survival are uncertain. People have inundated the shop’s social media accounts with vitriol. Several employees quit. Valley coffee shops that bought roasted beans from Xanadu have scrambled to find new suppliers. The shockwaves have gone as far as Phoenix Elementary School District No. 1. The district’s governing board president is Jessica Bueno, a longtime associate of Denton’s. And though she hasn’t been directly involved with Xanadu since 2022, public records show she bailed Denton out of jail following his 2024 arrest, using her house as collateral. Considering her prominent role in a 14-school district near Xanadu that serves more than 5,500 children — from preschool through eighth grade — her move caught parents’ attention. But in an interview with Phoenix New Times, Bueno said she was only trying to help a friend and that she hadn’t considered the political effect of doing so. “I am still a human and I’m still going to show up authentically as myself, and that is someone who is always going to help their friends,” said Bueno, who was first elected to the governing board in 2020 and became its president in 2023. “I’ve known Randy for a while and I do believe that he is a good person and has good character. And so, to me, it was helping out a friend in need.” Bueno said she met Denton in 2016 when smallMatters, a nonprofit Bueno worked for, put on a workshop for small business owners at Denton’s former roastery. They quickly connected as Bueno, a self-proclaimed coffee snob, has “always been an admirer of coffee.” Through the nonprofit, Bueno helped Denton begin selling beans at farmer’s markets and training people to roast coffee. With a background in accounting, Bueno became the accounts manager of Xanadu Coffee Company in 2017. In October 2020, she and Denton opened Xanadu’s cafe on 7th Street in downtown Phoenix. She left Xanadu in 2022, citing priorities with the governing board, her nonprofit job and unhappiness with the business. But she and Denton remained friends. Bueno said that was the state of things when Denton called her from his jail holding cell after his arrest in Surprise. Though Bueno initially missed the call, she tracked Denton down and bailed him out. A deed of trust on file with the Maricopa County Recorder’s office shows she paid $12,500, with her downtown Phoenix home as collateral. When she saw Denton’s charges, which were then listed as solicitation of a minor, “I immediately thought, ‘Oh, he got set up’” — which, she added, is “essentially what happened.” Indeed, there was no actual 14-year-old communicating with Denton, >> p 8 Jessica Bueno (right) opened Xanadu Coffee on 7th Street in 2020 along with Randall Denton (left). Bueno left the business in 2022. (Bahar Anooshahr) | NEWS |
