ASHEVILLE – Charges of assault with a machete and domestic fowls running at large have been dismissed against an Airbnb business owner recently convicted of federal bank fraud.
Shawn Thomas Johnson, 38, was set to appear in Buncombe County District Court Jan. 26, on misdemeanor assault, and the misdemeanor charge relating to chickens on the loose. But the charges, which were unrelated, were dismissed, according to court records and the man Johnson is alleged to have attacked.
In terms of legal issues, Johnson has much bigger problems. He was sentenced Dec. 14 to nearly eight years in prison after pleading guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina to bank fraud and possession of a firearm by a felon. He is appealing part of a $2.8 million money judgment ordered against him and is making the appeal on his own without an attorney.
Johnson is being held in the Cherokee County jail. It is not clear why he has not yet been transferred to a federal prison. A spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals service, which is in charge of prisoner transfer, declined to comment, citing safety and security issues.