Ex-TAO hostess busted for flinging feces into NYC hotspot’s koi pond sports ‘Juicy’ outfit to court
A former hostess accused of chucking poop into a koi pond at a swanky downtown nightclub TAO showed up to Manhattan court Monday in sparkly knee-high boots and an all-white outfit that said “Juicy” across her butt.
Ariel Roman, 24, didn’t let the fact that she was going before a judge dampen her apparently high spirits — as the camera-loving accused felon smiled, laughed and stuck her tongue out for the camera while she waited on the wooden benches perched in the courthouse hallway.
She also blew kisses, winked and posed in her attention-grabbing outfit — which featured the word “Juicy” written across the back of her short-sleeved, zip-up sweater, as well as her white shorts — and strode down the center of the courtroom aisle as if it were a runway.
But she might not be so cheery when the cases against her finally come to fruition.
Roman has been charged with burglary and criminal mischief in connection to her angry early June poop-toss at TAO, which she freely admitted to doing Monday in Manhattan Criminal Court.
“That was me,” she told The Post outside the courtroom, smiling. “Because I wanted to get this interview. Because I was wanted anyway.”
In a lawsuit filed after her alleged outburst, TAO claimed its ex-employee’s feces fling had cost it a hefty $3,135 in damages, court records said.
The apparently troubled woman is also facing unrelated harassment charges that stem from her encounters with a TAO-affiliated promoter. She pleaded not guilty to that set of accusations in June.
The ex-hostess was also charged with assault last month after allegedly throwing a bottle at someone at the Hearsay nightclub.
TAO claims Roman is an “unhinged and violent” ex-employee on a rampage of “harassing and threatening behavior,” according to its June lawsuit.
But Roman claims that she’s a whistleblower who can’t be silenced.
She previously told The Post that she’s been targeted for speaking out about alleged sexual assault incidents at the hands of TAO’s promoters. And her feces fling was an attempt to draw attention to the issue.
“That’s my desperation,” she said last month. “That’s what led me to do something to get on the news with the TAO [poop throw] thing. I’m desperate because nobody’s taking accountability.”
Roman was fired from the club in December 2022, after she found out her boyfriend — a TAO promoter — had cheated on her, among other things, she said.
A chaotic series of events ensued.
Roman claimed her ex and his friends beat her in March 2023, breaking her front tooth and leaving her with a concussion. She also said she’s gotten anonymous threats.
Cops picked her up in June of that year for allegedly violating a restraining order that she claims she didn’t know about.
Authorities also said Roman called her ex and threatened to set him on fire that month.
But she denied the allegations, saying on Monday that she had canceled the call before her ex picked up.
“You can’t say that you’re going to light somebody on fire on a canceled phone call,” Roman said. “I didn’t even know it was canceled, because I didn’t make it.”
She said: “They set me up, because I tried to come forward about sexual assault happening at nightclubs.”
The court dismissed that case in December because of insufficient evidence.
Her next court date in the poop-toss incident is Sept. 9.
