Not much was being said about the accident that seriously injured two men (one of them being former Johnson County Deputy Cyle Harner, seen here with his father, former Johnson County Sheriff Charles Harner) and killed a third man in the Vienna area two months after the fact. Johnson County residents had contacted Disclosure to find out why.
JOHNSON CO. – Mainstream media are apparently tiptoeing around a situation that developed in Johnson County in late March that may have been the reason for the resignation of the county sheriff.
And if it wasn’t, it probably should have been.
Most media covering Johnson County, including those across the river in Kentucky, made much of the fact that Sheriff Charles Harner, who was elected in 2014 and replaced Illinois’ longest-serving sheriff, Elry Faulkner, resigned his position on April 27, citing his “family needing him at home.” Plenty of coverage was afforded to new Sheriff Pete Sopczak, including congratulatory accolades that point out that Sopczak is on the ballot this fall as the Republican candidate, and that Harner is “grateful for the support of the community.”
Just a month before – on Thursday, March 22 – Harner’s son, former Johnson County deputy Cyle (creative spelling of “Kyle”) Harner, 27 – had been involved in a single-vehicle collision in the Vienna area of the county that proved fatal to another man in the truck involved.
Information being disseminated about the crash was extremely scant. And none of it pointed out that Harner was A – a county deputy and B – Harner’s son.
This has prompted something just short of outrage but greater than mild concern in Johnson, as many folks there reached out to Disclosure to point out the situation, one that seems to indicate that despite any declared “efforts” of mainstream media in the area, they’re still covering for public officials…and the public is getting tired of it.
The details of the accident were also very, very pared down.
Official reports indicated that the accident occurred on the aforementioned date at 2:09 a.m. (one report made on one of the area’s TV stations, it appears, was either hastily or hesitantly thrown together and actually contained the sentence “The crash happened before 5 a.m. on Thursday, March 22 at 2:09 a.m. on Thursday, March 22”), on Old Route 146 Loop near Honeysuckle Lane in Johnson County.
Initial mainstream coverage had it that the single-vehicle crash “injured several people” and that the “vehicle went off the road, hit several trees, and ejected all three from the Ford F350 truck.” Coverage featured the fact that all three were transported to out-of-state hospitals, and that one was pronounced dead at whatever hospital he or she was transported to.
It wasn’t until a couple of days later that the identities of those involved were listed as Tyler Inman, 27 of Grantsburg; Cyle Harner, 27 of Vienna; and the deceased man was one Troy A. Newman, 24, of Buncombe.
Either the wreck made such a mess – or Illinois State Police were so concerned over the fact that one of the vehicle’s occupants was Harner – that they kept the 146 loop closed for 15 hours for cleanup and investigation.
To cap off the sensitive situation, nearly all articles/reports in mainstream media noted that it was “not clear who was driving the truck or what caused the crash,” although they did mention that none were wearing seatbelts. Notably, none made mention of who owned the truck.
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Further, among the carefully-worded articles in all corporate media covering the area, not one made reference to the fact that Harner was a deputy and the son of the sheriff…once they decided to actually publish his name.
So Disclosure made some inquiries and learned that just prior to the accident, all three men were partying at Big Boy’s on the Loop, a very popular bar and grill in Vienna
Thus far, neither Inman nor Harner have been cited for the crash, although it’s highly likely that blood draws taken at the various hospitals on all three men would likely reveal any level of intoxication they were suffering, no matter who was driving.
Harner had previously been with his father, the sheriff’s, deputy force, acting as K9 officer.
His status with the department remained unclear in published accounts, likely deliberately.
The ruckus raised by the public in the area over the non-coverage of exact facts had nothing to do with their feelings toward the Harners (who are very well-liked), but had everything to do with the double standard that public officials hold in Illinois (and in the country in general).
Those expressing concern to Disclosure advise that if it had been any of them, or their offspring, two months after the wreck, it already would have been determined who was driving, and if it were one of the two survivors, someone would have been charged in the wreck.
So the double standard continues to mold the way officials do things in the state, and the public is literally somewhat frightened to state this themselves, because they don’t want the backlash, which often results in targeting (something Disclosure is intimately familiar with, but withstands in order to continue to bring the reality of the news in the downstate area).
Currently, platitudes are still being offered to the younger Harner, with #Cylestrong (which, unfortunately, looks like “cyclestrong” when spelled out on social media) being circulated as of press time and being the only reference to the wreck available, and with the seating of Sheriff Sopczak, no other reference being made to the Harners.
If that situation changes, Disclosure will bring it to you either here in print, or on the website at www.disclosurenewsonline.com