Model Marla Hanson met NYPD Detective Joe Roman in 1986 after thugs slashed her face with a razor, leaving a wound that required 150 stitches. Detective Roman and his partner Bill Geiger became her protectors and friends, visiting her in the hospital, making her laugh, and helping her navigate hostile crowds at the trial when her attackers’ lawyer claimed she was a racist.
Hanson and Roman kept in touch sporadically over the years and when Hanson became depressed years later, it was Detective Roman who stepped in to help her again.
Detective Joseph Roman died last week of World Trade Center-related cancer. He was 60.
“New York is a lesser place without heroic Joe Roman,” Hanson told Denis Hamill of the Daily News.
