New York : Former club promoter-musician Michael Alig, who was picked up last week on a drug charge, says there was some "confusion over healing crystals".

New York Police Department sources say that officers spotted Alig, who was released from jail in 2014 after serving 17 years for the manslaughter of his friend Angel Melendez, in Joyce Kilmer Park near Yankee Stadium here with a pipe hanging out of his pocket.

When they searched him, they found what appeared to be crystal meth, according to police sources.

The District Attorney's office told pagesix.com he was arrested, pleaded guilty at his arraignment to a violation for trespassing in the park after hours (Alig claims he was walking to the subway) and given a conditional discharge.

Alig later said he was carrying a healing crystal called "piedra alumbre", which the police officers mistook for drugs and tests prove was of a non-meth variety.

The police are yet to confirm that claim. IANS