Charges dropped against Joshua Dolezal

Criminal charges against Joshua Dolezal, an assistant professor in Pella who was thrust into the national spotlight by the racial identity scandal of his sister, have been dropped weeks before his trial.

He is the brother of Rachel Dolezal, who resigned earlier this year as an NAACP chapter president in Washington state after her estranged parents revealed she is a white woman pretending to be black.

Rachel Dolezal suggested her parents went public to discredit her at a key point in the case against her brother, who since 2005 has been an associate professor of English at Central College in Pella.

The parents implied in interviews that Rachel Dolezal may have helped orchestrate the charges against her brother in the first place, the Washington Post wrote.

In 2013, the Clear Creek County District Attorney's Office in Colorado filed felony charges against Joshua Dolezal, accusing him of molesting the parents' adopted minor sibling more than a decade ago.

He was free on bail and scheduled to start trial in August.

A spokesman for the court district that includes Clear Creek said Tuesday that all charges against Joshua Dolezal had been dropped a day earlier. He said he could not say why.

Central College said earlier that Dolezal had informed its officials of the criminal case and was 'forthcoming.”

'We continue to value Josh as important member of our academic community,” said an email Tuesday from college President Mark Putnam.