Evidence once thought to be lost in 2001 sexual assault case found after 25 years, DA reviewing possible charges

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - A man who spent nearly 22 years in prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit is now back in the spotlight after being released from prison.

Now, two years after Sonny Bharadia’s conviction was vacated in 2024, the District Attorney’s office found multiple pieces of evidence that Thunderbolt Police thought were lost just last month.

In 2001, a young female teacher was sexually assaulted and robbed at her home in Thunderbolt.

Two men were originally charged in the case, and one testified against the other in exchange for a deal.

That testimony helped lead a jury to convict Sonny Bharadia, court records show. He was found guilty in 2003 of burglary, aggravated sodomy, aggravated sexual battery, and theft charges.

More than two decades later, a Gwinnett County Judge granted Bharadia the option of a new trial. The State of Georgia dismissed the case, though the dismissal paperwork left open the possibility he could be retried.

Since his release, Bharadia has sued the town of Thunderbolt and two former police officers who investigated the case.

On Tuesday, the Chatham County District Attorney’s Office said staff from the Thunderbolt Police Department, attorneys for Bharadia, and representatives from the Georgia Innocence Project met at the police station to review evidence the parties believed had been missing for about 25 years.

“I assembled this meeting at the Thunderbolt Police Department because we found evidence in a very, very old sexual assault case that was considered missing for about 24 years. And as part of our sexual assault review team, we had an ADA and an investigator come out and review old files and old cases, and they found some evidence and material that should have been part of the original trial of this case in different storage boxes here at the police department,” said District Attorney Shalena Cook-Jones.

The District Attorney’s office said the evidence was found last month in multiple locations inside the Thunderbolt Police Department, among other old case files stored in boxes and tubs.

District Attorney Shalena Cook-Jones said her office notified the involved parties after her staff located the materials, and then took an inventory.

“We’ll have to put the case file back together and make a decision on whether to prosecute and whom to charge, if anyone,” Cook-Jones said.

That could include Bharadia, his former co-defendant Sterling Flint, or someone else involved, DA Cook-Jones said.

In response to that, the Georgia Innocence Project said, “This office dismissed the case against him after it was overturned, and now they’re coming back and telling him that he could be recharged for the event that he was wrongfully incarcerated for and that they decided to dismiss...So it’s a very stressful situation—and unnecessarily so—given that prosecution cannot be brought due to the statute of limitations right now. But it’s still really stressful to have this hanging over your head again… knowing that you are innocent and that you’ve already served decades and lost decades of your life to this.”

After the parties review the evidence together, the district attorney’s office will take the materials into custody and review them to determine whether additional criminal charges are warranted.

DA Cook-Jones said prosecutors are not responsible for maintaining and preserving evidence, and rely on law enforcement agencies to keep investigative files.

“We rely on our law enforcement partners, detectives, and investigators to maintain an investigative file, which would include the reports, witness statements, and a forensic photos, a list of all the people that they spoke to, etc,” she said.

“It is honestly, like I use the word tragic to describe it. I mean, what we saw today, some of what we saw, we didn’t even know existed until we got this letter from the DA… there was a lot of stuff in there that would have been helpful for defense attorneys… and they were entitled to have it before his trial. It was not provided to them. And they’re just now laying eyes on it for the first time, 25 years almost after this happened.”

“It’s kind of sad, honestly, to think back on how things would have changed if this stuff had been provided as it should have been… knowing everything that Sonny has lost over the years, it is sad.”

Christina Cribbs, Senior Attorney at the Georgia Innocence Project

Among the items found, the district attorney’s office said, were the original photo lineup that included the suspect’s photo, a 10-page statement from the victim, medical records from the victim’s doctor, two letters Bharadia wrote to the victim, and a sealed, un-tested sexual assault kit.

DA Jones added, “As for the physical evidence in every criminal case—for example, a photo lineup in this case or a weapon in a shooting case or a rape kit in a sexual assault case—that is physical evidence, and up until the time of trial, it’s usually logged in the police department’s evidence room. Then, when the case goes to trial, we gather the evidence from the evidence room using a document that we call a chain of custody, so we know everyone who touched it. And then the detective usually comes to trial ready to testify about their full investigation. So that’s how it usually works.”

In a statement, the city of Thunderbolt said the evidence “was discovered among old archived files,” adding that its location had been previously unknown and that the town “deeply regrets that it was not discovered sooner.”

It remains unclear whether the district attorney’s office will pursue further criminal charges as the review continues.

We also spoke with the Georgia Innocence Project, after their team was able to view the newly found evidence.

“We were not able to open any of the items of physical evidence today—we were only allowed to look at documents. There’s a bullet point that says there’s a GBI sexual assault kit… it’s not marked, so we don’t actually know if that’s a rape kit or not. There’s no indication from the files that a rape kit was ever taken from the victim… that’s an unanswered question because we were not able to open that today, so we don’t know what’s in there," said Christina Cribbs, Senior Attorney at the Georgia Innocence Project.

When any of this found evidence is tested for DNA, as the DA said it will be, the Georgia Innocence Project believes those results will come back to the former co-defendant, Sterling Flint.

“We’re not resistant to any DNA testing, and we feel confident about the results. We don’t expect any DNA evidence to be tested to point in any other direction other than where all the other evidence points already,” added Cribbs.

We will provide an update as soon as we know when a decision is made.