What are the consequences of failing to report to the proper law enforcement officials of a sexual assault allegation?

The serious consequences to a law enforcement officer flowing from his failure to comply with this duty is exemplified in People v. Mullin (1961) 197 Cal.App.2d 479, 17 Cal.Rptr. 516. There, Mullin, the Sheriff of Tuolumne County, had been told by a fifteen-year-old girl that she had been sexually molested by her father. He did nothing whatsoever to bring the matter to the attention of the proper law enforcement officials. Thereafter the girl and her family moved to Marin County. There charges were filed against her father accusing him of the same crimes that had been recounted to Mullin by the girl in question. The father entered a plea of guilty to statutory rape of his daughter and was eventually committed as a sexual psychopath.