Woman says Phoenix officer acquitted of sexual assault ripping off customers in furniture business

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- One Valley woman says a furniture-maker won her over with talk about his former life as a police officer. But when she started feeling ripped off, she did some research. This former officer was fired from the Phoenix Police Department and acquitted on sexual assault charges before starting a new furniture business.

In July, Anne Giamundo and her wife Leigha placed an order with an up-and-coming furniture business, Custom Pup Crates. “He voluntarily told me that he was a Phoenix police officer but he left because his wife was pregnant and so he quit and he wanted to pursue his furniture business,” said Giamundo.

The owner, Sean Pena, is a former Phoenix police officer. He was fired in 2020. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because he just stood trial after he was accused of sexually assaulting multiple women. Pena was later acquitted of all those charges. “Kind of like a buyer beware type thing. Hopefully, no one pays him in cash one day,” Giamundo said.

Giamundo tells us Pena came to her house for a consultation, but once she made the payment, she says he went silent. She tried contacting him by email and phone but said nothing worked.

When she turned to Instagram, she was blocked. “Since he was active on Instagram we just figured we’d comment on one of his posts asking where our crates were figuring we may get something back if we were a little more public about it. The next day we checked back on and he deleted the comment,” said Giamundo.

That’s when she tried a new route. “A few days later, on October 15, I called him and I left him a very simple message with my name and number because my wife was dealing with him this whole time. So he didn’t have my name or my phone number. He called me back within three minutes,” Giamundo explained.

Initially, Giamundo says Pena had said it would take six to eight weeks for the furniture to be ready; the order was placed in July. She said she didn’t hear from him until after Arizona’s Family got involved Monday. After we called Pena about the accusation, he checked his systems and found their order. Just over an hour after our first contact with him, he fully refunded Giamundo and apologized for the delay, blaming a lower-level associate.

It’s important to note that Giamundo didn’t know Pena’s history before she made the order. After she got blocked on social media and he stopped replying to her emails, she researched him. She said what she found was worse than she expected.

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