From the archives: Matthew McConaughey and the bongos

"It wasn't bad for a night,'' Matthew McConaughey said Monday afternoon. ``But I wouldn't rent a place in there."

That's how the 29-year-old movie star and 1993 University of Texas graduate reviewed the Travis County Central Booking Facility, where he had a room reserved after Austin police came to his Tarrytown home because of a loud music complaint. An arrest warrant affidavit said officers found him dancing naked with some bongo drums and saw a marijuana bong on the coffee table.

McConaughey was arrested and charged with resisting transportation -- struggling with police as they tried to put him in a patrol car. The Class A misdemeanor is punishable by up to a year behind bars and a fine up to $4,000. No drug-related charges have been filed.

People in the lobby of Municipal Court -- most of them waiting to pay parking tickets -- cheered McConaughey as he exited the elevator with his attorney, Joe Turner.

“They had no warrant to go into his house,” said Turner, who successfully defended singer Willie Nelson against marijuana possession charges in 1995 after the country singer, sleeping in his car near Waco, was arrested. ``A citizen has a right to object when police handle you that way."

Austin Police Chief Stan Knee said officers conducted themselves properly. “The officers entered the house simply to get the owner to turn down the extremely loud music at 2:30 in the morning,” Knee said Monday. "I find the allegation of excessive force to be outrageous. The officers showed great restraint in dealing with Mr. McConaughey, who failed to cooperate with any of the officers' requests."

According to a sworn statement by Officer Michael Olson, he and another officer arrived at the actor's cottage in Tarrytown about 2:30 a.m. after someone complained of loud music.

Olson said as he approached the door, he looked through a window and saw McConaughey dancing naked and pounding on a set of bongos. Another man in the living room was clapping to the music, according to an arrest affidavit filed in Municipal Court. The second man was not charged.

Olson said he tried get McConaughey's attention by shining a flashlight in the window, but McConaughey didn't notice. Olson said he opened an unlocked screen door and entered the home after he saw a water pipe sitting on a coffee table.

The officer said that when he tried to talk to the actor, McConaughey yelled, "You can't be here," and started cursing him.

Olson handcuffed and wrapped a long-sleeve shirt around the actor and was trying to place him in a patrol car when McConaughey shoved himself backward into the officer, almost causing both men to fall.

In his affidavit, Olson said he smelled a faint odor of marijuana when he went into the living room and described McConaughey as glassy-eyed and smelling of alcohol.

Although police considered filing charges of possessing drug paraphernalia against the actor, Municipal Court Presiding Judge Penny Wilkov said it appeared that officers may have entered the actor's home illegally.

"It is not illegal to have a bong on your coffee table," she said. "But the law also says that you cannot resist police when they are trying to arrest you."

McConaughey, who was freed on $1,000 bail , declined to talk about the incident. His neighbors described him as friendly and well-behaved.

"I'm afraid this will give the wrong impression of who Matthew really is,'' said Lawrence Wright, a writer for The New Yorker magazine who has lived across the street from the actor for nearly two years. ``He's quiet, friendly, loves to work in his yard and has made a great effort to live a normal life in a city he loves and that loves him."

A neighbor, John Busch, 38, said that when he asked police why they were arresting McConaughey, one of the officers pushed Busch. Busch said the officer later apologized.

"Matthew is a very good neighbor," Busch said. "He feeds my dog when I'm out of town, and I water his plants when he is gone. When I was talking to him in the patrol car, he said: 'Everything is going to be good, Johnny B. The Lord is looking after me.'"

Actor Matthew McConaughey forked over a $50 noise violation fine Wednesday for his recent night of naked bongo drumming, and prosecutors dropped a more serious charge against him.

McConaughey, 30, pleaded guilty to violating the city noise ordinance -- a Class C misdemeanor -- by playing bongos into the wee hours of Oct. 25. In exchange, Travis County Attorney Ken Oden agreed to dismiss a Class A misdemeanor charge of resisting transport, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.

McConaughey was out of the country Wednesday and could not be reached for comment, but his lawyer said the actor was pleased with the plea bargain.

"If the officer had issued him this ticket from the beginning, it wouldn't have been a problem," attorney Joe Turner said. "The only thing Matthew did wrong was some bad bongo playing."

The plea bargain marks the conclusion of an embarrassing few weeks in which McConaughey's legal troubles became fodder for news entertainment programs and talk shows. It started when Austin police, responding to a noise complaint, confronted McConaughey inside his Tarrytown home. Officers said they entered the home after spotting through a window what they suspected to be a marijuana bong on a table and a nude McConaughey dancing and playing bongo drums as a clothed man clapped.

Police accused the star of "A Time to Kill" and "EdTV" of shoving an officer as they tried to put him in the back of a patrol car. Officers initially planned to file marijuana possession charges against McConaughey, but a municipal court judge tossed out that complaint after determining police did not have probable cause to enter the home without a warrant.

In the investigation after the arrest, several of McConaughey's neighbors stepped forward to bolster the actor's contention that he did not resist officers' efforts to take him into custody, Oden said.

"The neighbors told my investigators he was angry and back-talking the officers but was not physically resisting them," Oden said.

The follow-up investigation also brought to light other previously undisclosed facts surrounding the case, Oden said.

"I was amused to see that the allegations of his nudity were overstated. By the time we had seen the details of the official reports, it turns out he was not naked. He was wearing a UT bandana -- on his cranium," Oden said, anticipating the next question. "In this town, that might constitute a well dressed man."