Controversial ex-school board leader allegedly ducking lawsuit summons

Jessica Bueno, the former Phoenix Elementary School Board president who resigned after Phoenix New Times revealed she’d bailed out a now-convicted sex offender while in office, is now playing hard to get. Or, at least, hard to serve with a lawsuit.

According to a recent legal filing, Bueno is “intentionally avoiding” being served with a lawsuit brought against her and other school officials by a former district superintendent. Ex-Superintendent Ibi Davila Haghighat claims the district and members of the governing board, including Bueno, failed to pay the retirement funds owed to her after the board voted to “unilaterally” terminate her “without cause.”

But Haghighat has been unable to physically serve Bueno with the suit, which is one of the first steps in a civil legal process. The other members of the school board named in the lawsuit have been served. In six attempts, process server Randy Waxler was unable to give Bueno the papers at her home, which she used as collateral to bail disgraced Xanadu Coffee owner Randall Denton out of jail.

Bueno did not respond to several messages seeking comment from New Times.

According to court documents, Waxler first attempted to serve Bueno in the late afternoon on June 16. He was prevented from reaching the door by a locked gate, yelling “hello” but receiving no response. He tried again both two days and seven days later, with no luck.

During another attempt on June 25, Waxler said he could hear a female voice talking as he walked up to the door around 6 p.m. There was no answer when he knocked, but he saw a woman with a covered face looking out the window. He wasn’t able to tell if it was Bueno.

He made two more trips to the property. Around 6 p.m. on July 2, Waxler said he saw a woman walking by the home’s window. The woman ignored him. After the sixth unsuccessful attempt at serving Bueno over nearly a month, the attempt to serve her was placed on hold “pending further instructions,” according to court documents.

On July 9, Haghighat asked the court to allow her to serve Bueno by posting the summons, complaint and other court documents on the gate of Bueno’s home, as well as by sending them by First Class Mail to Bueno’s address. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Greg Como has yet to rule on that request.

The lawsuit

Haghighat started as district superintendent in July 2022 with a contract that was set to expire in June 2025. But her stint was abruptly cut short in November 2023 after the board voted 3 to 2 to oust her. Bueno voted in favor of firing Haghighat.

The board members who voted to remove her provided no explanation for their votes at the time. The two board members who voted against the move did speak out. According to an ABC 15 report at the time, now-former board member Reggie Carrillo, who is also a defendant in the lawsuit, criticized the board for its “toxicity,” not being open about its decision and lacking transparency.

As part of the separation agreement between Haghighat and the district, the lawsuit says, the district was “contractually obligated to credit and contribute” around $316,000 in funds to her Arizona State Retirement System account. Bueno and Haghighat signed that agreement, according to court records.

Haghighat says not all of those funds were paid, and she’s suing in Maricopa County Superior Court to get the district to pay her in accordance with their contract. She's also asking the judge to award her additional damages of more than $2.9 million. The district and board members’ lawyers denied the allegations laid out in Haghighat’s complaint on July 14, and claim that a copy of the separation agreement included as an exhibit is not a “true and complete copy” of the agreement.

Criticism over Bueno’s and the board’s lack of transparency is far from new. Many parents were furious that Bueno did not disclose her role in bailing out a friend who was caught in an underage sex sting. After news broke that she had bailed the man out of jail, she failed to show up at the governing board’s next meeting.

Parents also criticized the board's decision to vote to close two of the district’s elementary schools without enough community input. Additionally, the board also failed to inform parents that the district paid a former student $200,000 to settle a lawsuit over sexual abuse by her math teacher.