DALTON, Ga. — A former Northwest Whitfield High School coach and paraprofessional who was arrested in October for failing to report an alleged sexual assault of a juvenile at a private residence had the charges against him dropped, according to the District Attorney’s office.

District Attorney Bert Poston confirmed charges had been dismissed against Lamar Cofield, saying Cofield was not legally obligated to report the events of the party. Cofield’s attorney Sam Sanders said he was officially notified by the District Attorney’s office on Monday.

“Under Georgia law as interpreted a couple of years ago by the Georgia Supreme Court, a person who is otherwise a mandated reporter and required to report abuse that comes to their attention cannot be prosecuted for failure to report when the information came to their attention outside of the context of the employment that makes them a mandated reporter,” Poston wrote in an email. “In other words, a teacher who learns at school that one of her students is being abused must report, but the same teacher that learns outside of the school that some other child is being abused is under no such duty. They can report and there are some civil protections if they do report, but they are not required to nor can they be prosecuted for not reporting.”

Cofield was arrested in October after an investigation into an incident at a party at a private residence in July. According to a press release from Sheriff Scott Chitwood at the time of his arrest, Cofield was at a party and was told by a female student that she had been sexually assaulted. An incident report provided by the sheriff’s office quotes an individual whose name has been redacted as saying a female juvenile said she went to the bathroom when another juvenile came into the bathroom and “would not let her leave, after asking multiple times.” The two “had gotten into a struggle” when she tried to leave the bathroom. The report quotes the individual as saying the female juvenile was pushed into the shower and raped and that she was “yelling for help but nobody came to help.”

The incident report said the individual said the girl confronted the father of the juvenile. The individual said the girl was told by someone (the name is blacked out) “not to say she was raped” by the juvenile. The individual said “she didn’t understand why (name blacked out) would say that or why no adults at the party came to help,” the report said.

A message left for Cofield was not returned, but Sanders said Cofield is ready to move forward.

“We’re pleased that the criminal charges against Mr. Cofield have been dismissed,” Sanders said. “Mr. Cofield has always denied that he broke the law on the night in question and so this is a happy day for him. We appreciate the diligence of the District Attorney’s office and their effort in quickly investigating the facts and law related to this case.”

Poston, who is one of the legislative liaisons for the state’s district attorneys, said state law has not been amended since the ruling of the Supreme Court.

“We tried to legislatively fix that last year but the bill did not make it through the general assembly for other reasons,” Poston wrote. “It may come back up this year. Regardless, under current law, the facts of Mr. Cofield’s case are such that the law did not require that he make the report. Whether he should have, in good conscious, is a separate issue.”

Sanders said the support Cofield has gotten from the community has been tremendous.

“Personally, I’ve never represented a person that had such broad support from members of the community,” Sanders said. “I probably received 20 character letters on his behalf and even had people offer assistance with his legal fees. Based on the disposition of this case, I hope and anticipate that all professional doors will be open to him in the future.”

Cofield resigned from Northwest the day of his arrest. He had been employed since August 2013 and according to performance evaluations provided by Whitfield County Schools, Cofield had never had a negative evaluation. In addition to his paraprofessional duties, he was also an assistant football and boys basketball coach.

Whitfield County Schools spokesman Eric Beavers said Cofield may re-apply to the system, but his position at Northwest has been filled since his resignation and his case before the Georgia Professional Standards Commission is still pending. The GPSC regulates certification of the state’s educators.