A former hostess accused of throwing feces into a koi pond at the upscale downtown nightclub TAO appeared in Manhattan court on Monday wearing sparkly knee-high boots and an all-white outfit with the word “Juicy” written across her butt.
The fact that he was standing before a judge didn’t dampen Ariel Roman, 24,’s visibly excited mood: The camera-loving defendant smiled, laughed and stuck out his tongue for cameras as he waited on a wooden bench in the courthouse hallway.
She also blew kisses, winked, posed in an attention-grabbing outfit (a short-sleeved zip-up sweater with “Juicy” written on the back and white shorts) and strutted down the center of the courtroom aisle as if it were a runway.
But she may not be so happy when the lawsuit against her finally comes to fruition.
Roman was charged with theft and criminal damage to property in connection with her alleged incident in early June when she lost her temper and threw feces at TAO, an act she freely admitted to in Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday.
“That’s me,” she told The Post with a smile outside court, “because I wanted to do this interview. Because that’s what they wanted me to do anyway.”
In a lawsuit filed after her tirade, TAO claimed it suffered huge damages of $3,135 as a result of the former employee’s excrement hurling, according to court records.
The seemingly troubled woman also faces unrelated harassment charges stemming from contact with a TAO-affiliated promoter. She pleaded not guilty to the charges in June.
The former hostess was also charged with assault last month after allegedly throwing a bottle at someone at Hersey nightclub.
In a lawsuit filed in June, TAO alleged that Roman was a “mentally unstable and violent” former employee who had engaged in “harassing and threatening behavior.”
But Roman maintains she is a whistleblower who cannot be silenced.
She previously told the Post that she was targeted for speaking out about an alleged sexual assault by a TAO promoter, and that her feces-throwing act was an attempt to draw attention to the issue.
“That’s my desperation,” she said last month. “That’s what prompted me to try to do something to get in the news with TAO.” [poop throw] “I’m in despair because no one is taking responsibility.”
Roman was fired from the club in December 2022 after it was discovered that her boyfriend, a TAO promoter, had been cheating on her, she said.
A confusing series of events ensued.
Roman claims she was beaten by her ex-husband and his friends in March 2023, leaving her with a broken front tooth and a concussion. She also says she has received anonymous threats.
In June of that year, police arrested her on suspicion of violating a restraining order that she claimed she was unaware of.
Authorities also said that month Roman called her ex-husband and threatened to set him on fire.
But she denied the allegations and said she hung up the phone on Monday before her ex-husband picked up the phone.
“You can’t say you’re going to light a fire on somebody over a cancelled call,” Roman said. “I didn’t even know it was cancelled because I didn’t answer the phone.”
She said: “They set me up because I was trying to report a sexual assault that happened in a nightclub.”
A court dismissed the case in December for lack of evidence.
Her next hearing on the dung-throwing case is September 9th.
